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LIVES 



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EMINENT 






LITEKARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN 



OF AMERICA. 



B Y 



JAMES WYNNE, M. D. 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 

No. 20 BROADWAY. 
. 1850. 



n^io 



%* 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

JAMES WYNNE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 



/ 



7V' 



PI 



TO 

JOSEPH HENRY, L. L. D., 

SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 

Tins WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

AS A TESTIMONY OF HIS EMINENT SCIENTIFIC ATTAIN- 
MENTS, AND A TOKEN OF THE PERSONAL 
REGARD OF 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Much is said about the development of a purely national literature, but we 
confess that we have little expectation of realizing its speedy accomplish- 
ment. So long- as England and America speak the same language, and so 
long as the human mind is progressive in each, so long will they possess a 
literature in common, and whether willing to admit the truth or not, so long 
will they derive mutual advantage from the labors of either. And why 
should it not be thus .'' The gentle strains of Wordsworth fall as sweetly 
upon the ear from the quiet banks of the Delaware, as amid the mountains 
and lakes of his own Westmoreland, and Longfellow's Voices of the Night 
breathe as melodious and plaintive a tone, when echoed along the cliffs of 
Devon, as from the rock bound shores of New England. 

Literature is the reflex of society. It does not fashion, but is fashioned by 
it, — it is the consequence and not the cause. Its materials are developed, its 
fonns moulded, and its authors supplied from its ample resources, to which 
it gives a coloring in return. Occasionally some transcendant genius bursts 
upon the world in advance of his time, and lives neglected by his own, to be 
worshipped by succeeding ages ; but this is an exception, not an example. 
The literature of a country is usually the fairest criterion of its tastes, 
opinions, character and refinement, and judged by this standard, the hasty 
observer might question the advances of American society, because he sees 
nothing in its literature materially differing from that of the English. Now 
this only proves the intimate relations subsisting between them, which neither 
time nor distance, nor circumstance can entirely obliterate. 

They are both the offspring of a common ancestry, speak a common lan- 
guage, and boast a common literature. The American feels, and justly 
too, as much conscious pride in the dazzling genius of Shakspeare and Mil- 
ton, or the gigantic reasoning powers of Bacon and Locke, as the native of 
England. They are among the brilliant gems that sparkle in the coronet of 
their common literatxire, and cannot be circumscribed either in their influ- 
ence or associations, within the narrow limits of the sea girt island which 
gave them birth. 

The beneficial results of the labors of Addison in re-modelling the English 
prose from the stiff and pedantic style of the previous age, into that which at 
the present moment is admired on account of its classical purity and ele- 
gance, or those of Pope, the witty successor of Dryden, in chastening its 
poetry by means of his flowing and graceful, yet sarcastic versification, are 
not confined to England, but are equally appreciated and enjoyed by the 



4 PREFACE. 

younger member of the same family, upon the American side of the Atlan- 
tic. They are substantial contributions to English literature, which is as 
much the property of America as of the British islands, and should be arro- 
gated exclusively by neither. 

It is true, that thus far England has had the advantage of this state of 
things. A colonial dependence, a primeval and unfashioned state of society, 
a want of means to extend, or of leisure to cultivate it, were certainly not 
the most favorable circumstances under which to develop literary pursuits ; 
but much of this is already changing, and if the current of society remains 
undisturbed, it is easy to foresee that at no distant day, the English language 
and the English literature will seek America and not England, for the field 
of its future development, because it will address itself in the former to 
the greatest numbers, and spread its influence over the most extensive sur- 
face. Tliis is but the regular transmission of inheritance from parent to 
child, and cannot dissever the reciprocal literary relations which always have 
and always will exist betwixt them ; reciprocal relations which the legisla- 
tors of both countries have strangely and inconsiderately overlooked. Why 
should he who administers to the loftiest wants of mankind be the only one 
whose labors are considered as unworthy of legislative protection ? When 
every species of industrial pursuit meets with a sufficient indemnification 
from usurpation, by law, why should the intellectual labor of the English 
author in America, or of the American author in England, be considered as 
common property and unwortliy of legislative interference ? 

That the human mind has suffered no deterioration in its transit across the 
Atlantic, and that while Newton and Barrow were making rapid advances in 
physical science, and Lord Karnes and Reid, in the department of intellectual 
philosophy, America was not deficient in contributing her quota to the de- 
velopment of science and the elevation of English literature, the perusal of 
the lives of eminent men of America, feebly portrayed though they may be, 
will fully demonstrate. 

Baltimore, July, 1850. 



CONTENTS, 



PAOE. 

FRANKLIN, 7 

Rev. JONATHAN EDWARDS, 134 

FULTON, 168 

CHIEFJUSTICEMARSHALL, 231 

Dr. R ITT EN HOUSE, . . . . . . . 301 

ELI WHITNEY, 332 



M I 



EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN 
OF AMERICA. 



FRANKLIN. 



There is no enquiry more interesting, and at the same 
time more instructive, than that which traces the progress 
of a great mind from its feeble beginnings to the period when 
it fills the world with its renown. Mankind are naturally 
curious to become acquainted with its early hopes and as- 
pirations, and to learn what peculiar features distinguished 
it from other minds, and hence the charm thrown around 
autobiography. This charm is greatly enhanced when its 
pages are unsullied by that display of personal vanity, so 
difficult altogether to repress, and yet so injurious to the 
memory of its author when indulged in. It is this apparent 
' truthfulness and absence of personal display which invest the 
lives of Gibbon and Hume with their remarkable fascination, 
and the want of these characteristics which mars Rousseau's 
Confessions and Byron's Letters, even more than the immo- 
ralities they so unblushingly display. 

Franklin fortunately left behind him an unfinished work 
of this class containing a sketch of his early years, which for 
perspicuity and unaffected simplicity has no superior and but 
few equals. From this we learn, that he was born in Boston, 



S ^ • FRANKLIN. 



on the 6th day of January, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin 
emigrated to America about 1682, from the small village of 
Ecton, m Northamptonshire, England, where the family occu- 
pied a freehold for upwards of three centuries, of about thirty 
acres. '< This smaU estate," continues the autobiography 
"would not have sufficed for their maintenance without the 
business of a smith, which had continued in the family down 
to my uncle's time, the eldest being always brought up to that 
employment, a custom which he and my father followed with 
regard to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at 
Ecton, I found an account of their marriages and burials from 
the year 1555 only, as the registers kept did not commence 
previous thereto; I however learnt from it, that I was the 
youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. 
My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at 
Ecton tiU he was too old to continue his business, when he 
retired to Banbury, in Oxfordshire, to the house of his son 
John, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There 
my uncle died and lies buried. His eldest son Thomas lived 
m the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only 
daughter, who sold it to Mr. Isted, lord of the manor there " 
His grandfather had four sons, viz: Thomas, John, Benja- 
min and Josiah. Thomas, the elder, was bred a smith, John a 
dyer, probably of wool, Benjamin a silk dyer, and Josiah, the 
father of the philosopher, after serving an apprenticeship with 
his elder brother John, become a tallow chandler, which busi- 
ness he prosecuted in Boston until his decease, obtaininc 
from It a frugal but honest support, and the means of rearin" 
humbly but reputably a large and worthy family of children! 
The father of Benjamin Franklin married quite young, and 



HIS PARENTAGE. 



brought with him to America a family consisting of his wife 
and three children. He emigrated in company with a num- 
ber of religious dissenters, to whose faith he was attached, 
but it does not appear that he was driven by rehgious zeal 
like many of his sect to seek an asylum in a new country, 
from the persecutions he had experienced in his native land. 
Of his father, Franklin says, that " he had an excellent consti- 
tution, was of middle stature, well set and very strong; he 
could draw prettily, (which from the specimens in a note- 
book kept by Franklin we conclude he could not,) was a little 
skilled in music; his voice was sonorous and agreeable, so 
that when he played on his violin and sung withal, as he was 
accustomed to do after the business of the day was over, it 
^vas extremely agreeable to hear him. He had some know- 
ledge of mechanics, but his great exceUence was his sound 
understanding and solid judgment." 

« At his table he liked to have as often as he could some 
sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took 
care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, 
which might tend to improve the minds of his children." 

Benjamin was the youngest son by a second wife, whose 
name was Abiah Folger, the daughter of Peter Folger, one of 
the earliest settlers in New England, and the author of a 
pamphlet on some controversial subject. Franklin was one 
of a very numerous family. His father had seven children 
by his first wife and ten by his second, of whom Benjamin 
remembers to have seen thirteen seated together at his 

father's table. 

His elder brothers were all apprenticed to different trades, 
but Benjamin was sent to a grammar school, preparatory to 
2 



10 FRANKLIN. [1716 

an education for the pulpit, towards which his uncle proposed 
to contribute by leaving him a short hand volume of the ser- 
mons of different clergymen taken by himself. 

The increasing wants of his large family induced his father, 
in less than a year from the commencement of his studies,' 
to alter his plan concerning his son and remove him from 
school, in order to make his services useful in contributing to 
the general maintenance of the family. He was accordingly 
at ten years of age made the errand boy of his father's tal- 
low chandlery, and in this capacity was employed in carrying 
candles and soap to the houses of customers residing in Bost 
ton, besides performing various other offices connected with 
the trade, as cutting the wick for candles, and fiUing the 
moulds with tallow. 

"I disliked," says he, -the trade, and had a strong incli- 
nation to go to sea, but my father declared against it; "but re- 
siding near the water, I was much in it and on it; I learnt to 
swim well, and to manage boats, and when embarked with 
other boys I was commonly aUowed to govern, especially in 
any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was gene- 
rally the leader among the boys, and sometimes led 'them 
into scrapes, of which I wiU mention one, as it shows an 
early projecting^ public spirit, though not then justly con- 
ducted. 

"There was a salt marsh which bounded part of the mill- 
pond, on the edge of which at high water we used to stand 
to fish for minnows; by much trampling we had made it a 
mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a wharf there for 
us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap 
of stones, which were intended for a new house near the 



^T. 10.] FONDNESS FOR BOOKS. H 

marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Ac- 
cordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone 
home, I assembled a number of my playfellows and we worked 
diligently like so many emmets ; — sometimes two or three to 
a stone, till we had brought them all to make our little wharf. 
The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing 
the stones which formed our wharf; inquiry was made after 
the authors of this transfer; we were discovered, complained 
of, and corrected by our fathers, and though I demonstrated 
the utility of our work, mine convinced me, that, that which 
was not truly honest, could not be truly useful.^' 

Franklin was from his earliest years passionately fond of 
books, and devoured with avidity whatever species of read- 
ing came to his hand. His father's library was unfortunately 
but scantily stocked, and consisted chiefly of works on the 
religious controversies of the day, which he read, from the 
bare yearning for this pastime, and probably with but little 
profit to himself. There were a few books in this small col- 
lection of a different character, to which Franklin has attri- 
buted some of the peculiar characteristics of his subsequent 
life. Among these were Plutarch's Lives and Dr. Mather's 
Essay on the means of doing good. This latter book was 
quite a favorite with him, and he imagined it had a material 
influence in fashioning his train of thinking, and modifying 
the principal events of his future life. Every individual 
is certainly the best judge of those causes which affect his 
own mind ; but we cannot avoid the conclusion that Franklin 
owed much more to the intuitive gifts of his intellect than to 
any of the chance circumstances alluded to by him. It does 
appear to us that the associations of his early boyhood were 



12 FRANKLIN. [1718. 

eminently unfavorable to the development of the philosophic 
reasonings which distinguished him in after life, and Avere 
even at this early age perceptible in the course of his read- 
ing as well as his youthful actions. 

His invincible repugnance to his occupation, and his desire 
to follow the sea, increased rather than diminished, and his 
father deemed it prudent after the trial of one or two other 
kinds of business, to apprentice him to that of printino- under 
his brother James, who had just returned from London Avith 
a press and types to establish himself in Boston. Franklin 
still retained his fondness for the sea, and declined for some 
time to enter into the contract. His objections were at last 
overcome by the persuasion of his parent, and he signed the 
indenture which bound him as an apprentice to his brother 
when but twelve years of age. 

The new occupation he had selected, or rather which had 
been selected for him, provided him with the means of ob- 
taining a more ready access to books than he had hitherto 
enjoyed. His acquaintance with the apprentices of booksel- 
lers, frequently obtained for him the loan of some small 
volume, which he was careful to return clean and at the ap- 
pointed time. To what profit he turned this advantage may 
be judged from his own language. "Often," he remarks, " I 
sat up in my chamber the greatest part of the night, when 
the book was borrowed in the evening to be returned in the 
morning lest it should be found missing." What the charac- 
ter of this reading was, he has not told us, but from the fact 
that he soon after appeared as the author of some very poor 
verses, we are inclined to the opinion that it was rather en- 
tertaining than substantial. 



^T. 12.] IMPROVES HIS STYLE. 13 

The manner in which he was led to correct his style in 
prose writing, is not only worthy of note as illustrative of the 
development of his mental powers under such serious obsta- 
cles, but likewise as furnishing a lesson of perseverance wor- 
thy of imitation by those who aim to overcome early disad- 
vantages by careful and continued attention. He appears to 
have had a companion named John Collins, with -whom he 
was fond of engaging in disputation, and to whom he gave 
the credit of possessing a style more fluent and pleasing than 
his own. On one occasion their dispute was interrupted be- 
fore terminated, and was afterwards continued by a series of 
papers on both sides. These papers fell into the hands of 
his father, who tallow chandler though he was, certainly pos- 
sessed strong natural sense. He at once perceived the 
strong points and the errors in his son's composition, and 
without entering into the subject in dispute, took occasion 
to talk to him about his manner of writing; observing that 
though he had advantage of his antagonist in correct spelling 
and pointing, (which he attributed to the printing house) he 
fell far short in elegance of expression, in method and persj^i- 
cuity, of which he convinced him by several instances. 
Franklin saw the justice of his remarks, and thence grew 
more attentive to his manner of writing, and determined to 
endeavor to improve in style. 

"About this time," he remarks, "I met with an odd 
volume of the Spectator. I had never before seen any of 
them ; I bought it, and read it over and over, and was much 
delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and 
wished, if possible, to imitate it. With that view I took some 
of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in 



14 FRANKLIN. [1722. 

each sentence, laid them by a few days, and without looking 
at the book tried to complete the papers again." 

In this manner he devoted each leisure hour torn from the 
laborious duties of his trade, to the improvement of his style, 
and the attainment of those elementary branches of educa- 
tion, now within the reach of almost every child, however 
humble, in most of the United States. 

The advantage derived from these exercises is thus with 
great modesty related by himself. " By comparing my work 
with the original, I discovered my faults and corrected them ; 
but I sometimes had the pleasure to fancy that in particulars 
of small consequence, I had been fortunate enough to improve 
the merit or the language, and this encouraged me to think, 
that I might in time, come to be a tolerable English writer, of 
which I was extremely ambitious." 

One great merit consequent upon the perusal of Addison's 
writings and works of a kindred character, was the aban- 
donment of a disputatious manner which had infused itself 
into his conversation and writings, and Avhich he mainly at- 
tributed to the reading of the works on polemic divinity, 
found in his father's library. After the opportunities afforded 
by many years of observation, he pronounces it "a very 
bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in 
company, by the contradictions that is necessary to bring it 
into practice;" and adds, "persons of good sense, I have 
since observed, seldom fall into it." Having arrived at some 
proficiency in his style, he felt a great desire to ascertain its 
effects upon the public, and with this view, wrote an article 
in a disguised hand for his brother's newspaper, which was 



^T. 16.] EARLY EFFORTS AS A WRITER. 15 

submitted to the inspection of several gentlemen who con- 
tributed to it, and pronounced worthy of insertion. 

"Hearing," says Franklin, "their conversation, and their 
accounts of the approbation their papers were received with, 
I was excited to try my hand among them ; but being stiU a 
boy, and suspecting that my brother would object to printing 
any thing of mine in his paper, if he knew it to be mine, I 
contrived to disguise my hand, and writing an anonymous 
paper, I put it at night under the door of the printing house. 
It was found in the morning, and communicated to his wri- 
ting friends wlien the}^ called in as usual. They read it, 
commented on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite 
pleasure of finding it had met with their approbation, and 
that in their different guesses at the author none were named 
but men of some character among us for learning and inge- 
nuity. I suppose that I was rather lucky in my judges, and 
they were not reaUy so very good as I then believed them 
to be. 

" Encouraged, however, by this attempt, I wrote and sent 
in the same way to the press several other pieces, that were 
equally approved, and I kept my secret tiU all my fund of 
sense for such performances was exhausted, and then discov- 
ered it, when I began to be considered with a little moi'e at- 
tention by my brother's acquaintances." 

This discovery of his talents as a journal writer, exercised 
a very important influence over the immediate, and perhaps 
idtimate destiny of Franklin. The consideration he received 
at the hands of his brother's friends, had a tendency to 
upturn the strict relations his brotlier sought to maintain be- 
tween them as master and indentured apprentice. Whilst the 



16 FRANKLIN. [1723. 

master on his part manifested a peevishness and authority ill 
becoming a near relative and employer, Franklin, beyond 
doubt, arrogated somewhat more to himself than he was 
justly entitled to claim, by reason of the possession of his 
imagined superior mental qualifications. This led to frequent 
altercations, the infliction of occasional punishments, and the 
final determination of the apprentice to leave his master's 
employ — which his brother, by cancelling his indentures, in 
order to enable him to appear as the conductor of the news- 
paper carried on by himself, but which the Government had 
taken umbrage at, and ordered him to discontinue — enabled 
him to accomiilish. Franklin, with that candor which chai*- 
acterizes his entire personal narration, confesses that he was 
not justified in this step, and styles it in true printer's phrase, 
" the first errata^' of his life. 

Unable to obtain employment in his native town on account 
of the rppresentations made of him by his brother, and fear- 
ing lest if he attempted openly to leave, he might be pre- 
vented by his father and brother, he managed through the 
intervention of his friend Collins, to leave clandestinely, in a 
vessel bound for New York, under the pretence that he had 
" had an intrigue with a female of bad character," whose pa- 
rents would compel him to marry her if his intended depar- 
ture was discovered. At New York he met with no better 
success, but was told by the only printer there, at that period, 
that his son, who resided at Philadelphia, had recently lost 
his most valuable workman, and that he would doubtless em- 
ploy him. Franklin accordingly left New York, and after a 
series of mishaps was landed at Market street wharf in Phil- 



^T. 17.] ARRIVES IN PHILADELPHIA. 17 

adelphia, on Sunday morning from a small boat in which he 
had performed the last part of his journey. 

"I was," says he, "in my working dress, my best clothes 
coming round by sea. I was dirty from my being so long in 
the boat ; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stock- 
ings, and I knew no one, nor where to look for lodgings. 
Fatigued with walking, rowing, and the want of sleep, I was 
very hungry, and my whole stock of cash consisted in a 
single dollar and about a shilling in copper coin, which I gave 
to the boatmen for my passage. At first they refused it on 
account of my having rowed, but I insisted on their taking it. 
Man is sometimes more generous when he has little money 
than when he has plenty, perhaps to prevent his being thought 
to have little. I walked towards the top of the street, gazing 
about, stiU in Market street, where I met a boy with bread. I 
had often made a meal of dry bread, and enquiring where he 
had bought it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed 
me to ; I asked for biscuits, meaning such as we had at Boston ; 
that sort, it seems, was not made in Philadelphia. I then 
asked for a 'three penny loaf, and was told they had none. 
Not knowing the different prices of bread, nor the names of 
the different sorts, I told him to give me three penny worth 
of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy 
roUs. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and hav- 
ing no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each 
arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market street as 
far as Fourth street, passing by the door of Mr. Reed, my 
future wife's father, where she, standing at the door, saw me 
and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, 
ridiculous appearance." 
3 



18 FRANKLIN. [1723. 

There were, at this time, but two printing establishments in 
Philadelphia, and both were of the meagerest kind. In one 
of these, conducted by a man named Keimer, he obtained 
employment, and by a singular sort of coincidence, was 
lodged by his employer at the house of Mr. Reed, before 
whose door he had passed but a few days previous, in the 
grotesque manner so quaintly related by himself. His chest 
of clothing having arrived, he was enabled to make " a rather 
more respectable appearance in the eyes of Miss Reed," than 
when she had first chanced to see him munching his penny 
loaf of bread. 

Among the acquaintances made by him in Philadelphia, 
was that of Sir William Keith, the governor of the Province, 
who appears to have been a kind hearted and jovial sort of 
personage, but excessively given in the exuberance of his 
fancy, to making fair promises, which he had neither the in- 
tention nor the ability to perform, although to allow him due 
credit, he certainly desired most cordially to see them carried 
into execution. While on a visit to New Castle, he had seen 
a letter written by Franklin to his brother-in-laAv, Holmes, 
and was so much struck with the superior ability displayed 
by a youth of seventeen years of age, that on his return to 
Philadelphia he sought him out, and treated him with great 
kindness and attention. 

Franklin thus describes his first interview with the Gov- 
ernor. "Keimer and I being at work together, near the 
window, we saw the Governor and another gentleman (who 
proved to be Col. French, of New Castle, in the Province of 
Delaware,) finely dressed, come directly across the street to 
our house, and heard them at the door. Keimer ran down 



Mt. 17.] VISIT FROM THE GOVERNOR. 19 

immediately, thinking it a visit to him, but the Governor in- 
quired for me, and Avith a condescension and politeness I had 
been quite unused to, made me many compliments, desired to 
be acquainted with me, blamed me kindly for not having 
made myself known to him when I first came to the place, 
and would have me away with him to the tavern, where he 
was going with Col. French, to taste, as he said, some excel- 
lent INIaderia." Over his wine he proposed to Franklin, to 
establish himself in business, promising to lend him all his 
influence, and assuring him of success, as his competitors 
were but poor workmen. Franklin was very much pleased 
with the idea, but feared lest his father might object. The 
frank hearted Governor would listen to no such objection, and 
it was finally arranged that Franklin should take the first op- 
portunity to visit his father, and obtain his consent, in which 
he was to be aided by a pressing letter from Sir William. 
In the meantime, he kept his own secret, and continued to 
work quietly at his trade, occasionally dining with the Gov- 
ernor, which he " considered a great honor, more particularly 
as he conversed with him in the most affable, friendly and 
.familiar manner." 

It is not at all unnatural that the acquaintance of, and 
friendly interchange of courtesies with, so distinguished a 
person as the Governor of the Province, should have tickled 
the fancy of the poor printer's boy, and even after old age 
had overtaken him and he had grown familiar with the most 
exalted society, and accustomed to receive the highest de- 
monstrations of respect, we can still perceive the lurking feel- 
ing of triumph over his employer Keimer, with which he 



20 FRANKLIN. [1724. 

penned the account of the interview between the Governor 
and himself. 

Franklin's father felt flattered by the attention paid to his 
son by so important a person as Sir William Keith, but could 
not agree with him as to the propriety of establishing his son 
in business at his immature age, and positively refused to 
furnish him with the necessary means to accomplish the un- 
dertaking. He wrote a polite letter to Sir William declining 
his aid, and gave to his son the wholesome advice to remain 
closely attentive to his business until he was twenty-one 
years of age, by which time he might, with prudence, save 
money enough to set himself up, and that if he came any 
where near it he would help him out with the rest. 

The Governor, on the receipt of the elder Franklin's letter, 
told Benjamin that he thought his father too prudent, and that 
discretion " did not always accompany years, nor was youth 
without it." "But," said he, "since your father will not set 
you up, I will." He told Franklin to give him an inventory 
of such things as he wanted, and promised to send to Eng- 
land for them, allowing Franklin to return the money when 
he was able. 

"I presented him an inventory of a little printing house," 
says Franklin, "amounting by computation to about one hun- 
dred pounds sterling. He liked it, but asked me if my being 
on the spot in England to choose the types and see that every 
thing was good of the kind, might not be of some advantage ; 
'then,' said he, 'when there you may make acquaintance, 
and establish correspondences in the book-selling and sta- 
tionery way.' 1 agreed that this might be advantageous. 
'Then,' said he, 'get yourself ready to go with the Annis,' 



Mr. 18.] SAILS IN THE ANNIS.^ 21 

Which was the annual ship and the only one at that time 
passing between London and Philadelphia. But as it would 
be some months before the Annis sailed, I continued working 

with Keimer." 

When the time for its sailing had nearly arrived, he sought 
to obtain from the Governor the letters of credit and mtro- 
duction promised by him, but was put off under one pretence 
or another until the very moment of sailing, when the Gov- 
ernor sent his Secretary to Franklin to say, that the letters 
would meet him on board the vessel. Under these assu- 
ranees Franklin went on board, and sailed for England, ac- 
companied by a particular friend named Ralph, who had 
some pretensions to be a poet, and is thus noticed in Pope's 
Dunciad : 

« Silence ye wolves while Ralph to Cynthia howls. 
And makes night hideouB :-answer him ye owls." 

This man left behind him a wife and child, who he was at 
that moment deserting with the full intention of never return- 
ing to them again; a fact afterwards communicated to Frank- 
lin, without lessening the esteem he entertained for his 

companion. 

On arriving in the British channel, and overhauling the 
mail-bag, FrLklin found, to the utter discomfiture of his 
plans, that the expected letters had never been sent, and that 
the promises of the Governor were only so many excuses 
quietly to rid himself of the performance of an obligation he 
found himself unable to comply with. It would appear that 
Sir William Keith was one of the most companionable and 
good feeling men in the province, and really desired two 
things in regard to his young companion ; first, to see " a good 



22 FRANKLIN. [1724. 

printer" established in Philadelphia, and second, that that 
printer should be young Franklin. But he was unfortunately- 
given to making promises which he had not the ability to 
execute, and his imagination was so apt to run away with 
his judgment, that few persons who knew him placed much 
confidence in what he said in the way of patronage. His 
credit in England, moreover, was rather less than that of 
Franklin's himself. 

But what could have induced him to think of placing a 
poor youth, whose friend he professed to be, in this unplea- 
sant situation? Franklin says, after age had cooled his re- 
sentment, that "it was a habit he had acquired; he wished 
to please every body, and having but little to give, he gave 
expectations. He was, otherwise, an ingenious, sensible man, 
a pretty good writer, and a good Governor for the people, 
though, not for his constituents, the proprietaries, whose in- 
structions he sometimes disregarded. Several of our best laws 
were of his planning, and passed during his administration." 

In accordance w^ith the advice of some friends he had 
formed on the passage, he betook himself in these straits to 
his trade, and pretty soon found employment as a jour- 
neyman printer. For some time he continued to lead a free 
and easy sort of life with his boon companion Ralph, visiting 
such places of amusement as were within his reach, and try- 
mg to think, in the excitement of the great metropolis, as lit- 
tle of Philadelphia as possible. There was one tie, however, 
although not quite so indissoluble as that of Ralph's, that 
should have led his thoughts that way much oftener than 
they strayed thither. This was his young companion and 
faithful friend, Miss Reed, whose affections he had succeeded 



JEt. 18.] NEGLECT OF MISS REED. 23 

in attaching to himself, but to wring her young and ardent 
heart by a cold and cruel neglect. 

Franklin, in speaking of this little episode, has managed 
most adroitly to divert from himself the odium of the trans- 
action by the cool and business-like manner in which he re- 
lates it ; but he has failed to tell us of the long and anxious 
hours of bitter suspense endured by the loving, hoping, con- 
fiding girl, whose purest and tenderest sympathies he had 
managed to intertwine, in a dream of future happiness, in 
which he formed the most prominent object, by his for- 
getfulness and failure to write. Once only during his sojourn 
in London did he write, and then to tell her that he did not 
soon expect to return. It is no wonder that after the receipt 
of this letter, more cold and cruel than the previous neglect, 
she should in a fit of desperation, have yielded to the urgent 
entreaty of her mother, and given herself in a marriage, in 
which her heart refused to second the words pronounced by 
her lips. 

In the meantime, Franklin and Ralph were living together 
in London, upon the wages earned by the former, and in 
some respects not much to the credit of either. Ralph had 
succeeded in becoming very intimate with a young milliner 
who lodged in the house with them, to whom he was in the 
habit of reading plays, and finally ruined her. She left the 
house, Ralph followed her, and they continued to live to- 
gether for some time on the means procured by her business, 
but at last finding it inadequate to their maintenance, Ralph 
left London to teach a small school, under the feigned name of 
Franklin, recommending the girl to Franklin's care. Her 
connexion with Ralph had ruined her business, alienated her 



24 FRANKLIN. [1725. 

friends, blasted her hopes, and caused her frequently to be in 
distress for money. On these occasions, she often applied to 
Tranklin for aid, which he did not hesitate to bestow in the 
shape of small loans. 

"I grew fond," adds he, "of her company, and being at 
that time under no religious restraint, and taking advantage 
of my importance to her, I attempted to take some liberties 
with her, (another erratum) which she repulsed with a proper 
degree of resentment. She wrote to Ralph, and acquainted 
him with my conduct, which occasioned a breach between 
us; and when he returned to London he let me know he con- 
sidered all the obligations he had been under to me as an- 
nulled, from which I concluded that I was never to expect 
his repaying me the money I had lent him, or that I had 
advanced for 1 .in." 

The great fundamental error of Franklin's life thus far, was 
his precocious free-thinking sentiments. He tells us, that 
notwithstanding the strict Puritanical notions of his parents, 
and the religious maxims they strove to inculcate in him, he 
"was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns, several 
points as I found them disputed in the different books I read, 
I began to doubt of the Revelation itself." One of his chief 
reasons for leaving his native place, when he cut himself 
loose from his brother's employment, was that " his indiscreet 
disputations about religion began to make him pointed at with 
horror by good people, as an infidel or atheist." 

Both in Philadelphia and London, many of his acquaintances, 
including Sir William Keith, were disbelievers in the Christian 
religion, among whom there seemed to exist a strong atfinity. 
Whilst engaged as a journeyman printer in London, he "was 



-^T. 19.] vriEWS OF RELIGION, 25 

employed in composing for the second edition of Woollaston's 
Religion of Nature," which he attempted to refute in a small 
pamphlet he afterwards regretted publishing, called "a Dis- 
sertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." 

Franklin says, "there were only one hundred copies 
printed, of which I gave a few to friends, and afterwards dis- 
liking the piece, as conceiving it might have an ill tendency, 
I burnt the rest, except one copy, the margin of which was 
filled with manuscript notes, by Lyons, author of the Infalli- 
bility of Human Judgment." 

This pamphlet brought him into contact with a number of 
persons of high social position, but of loose morals. Among 
his acquaintances were Drs. Mandeville and Pemberton. The 
former of these gentlemen was the leader of a club that held 
its meetings at a pale-ale house in Cheapside, and is repre- 
sented as a man of great humor and wit, but eccentric. Dr. 
Pemberton was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a friend 
of Sir Isaac Newton's, to whom he promised to introduce 
Franklin, but never did. He was the author of a treatise on 
Chemistry as well as a "View of Sir Isaac Newton's Phi- 
losophy." 

Franklin pretty soon discovered that the practical effects of 
his system were most pernicious to society, from which he 
was himself made to suffer, at the hands of Collins and Ralph, 
whose religious tenets he had been mainly instrumental in 
unsettling, and whose departure from the paths of rectitude he 
never fully forgave himself for. Nor was his own great in- 
tellect and high sense of moral propriety sufficient to shield 
him from the evil and insidious inroads of free-thinking. 
Nothing short of such fallacious reasoning as " that nothing 
4 



26 FRANKLIN. [1726. 

in the world could possibty be wrong," and that "vice and 
virtue were mere empty distinctions," could have induced liim 
to abrogate the ties which bound him to his brother, and leave 
under the most disreputable imputations the hearth stone of 
his parents, and the home of his childhood. 

In London he likewise took up his abode and shared his 
purse with an avowed libertine, who had deserted his helpless 
wife and still more helpless offspring, to lead a life of licen- 
tiousness and shame, with a poor frail creature, induced by 
her affection, to stray from a path of virtue to one of hopeless 
and abandoned misery. The same cavise induced him, after 
the temporary abandonment of this victim by Ralph, to prove 
unfaithful to his friend, and cruel to the fallen child of 
sin, who had been thrown upon his kind offices and pro- 
tection. 

He afterwards " grew convinced that Iruih, sincerity and 
integrity in dealing between man and man, were of the utmost 
importance to the felicitv of Ufe ;" "and," adds he "I formed 
w^ritten resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to 
practice them ever while I lived. Revelation had indeed no 
weight with me as such, but I entertained an opinion, that, 
though certain actions might not be bad, because they were 
forbidden by it, or good because it commanded them, yet, 
probably, these actions might be forbidden because they were 
bad for us, or commanded because they were beneficial to us 
in their own natures, all the circumstances of things con- 
sidered. And this persuasion, with the kind hand of Provi- 
dence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favorable cir- 
cumstances and situations, or all together, preserved me, 
through this dangerous time of j'outh, and the hazardous sit- 



.Ex. 20.] RETURNSTO PHILADELPHIA. 27 

uation I was sometimes in among strangers, remote from the 
eye and advice of my father, free from any wilful, gross im- 
morality or injustice, that might have been expected from any 
want of religion. I say wilful, because the instances I have 
mentioned had something of necessity in them, from my youth, 
inexperience and the knavery of others." 

After a residence of about eighteen months in London, he 
prepared to return to Philadelphia, as a merchant's clerk, in 
the employ of a gentleman named Denham, whose acquain- 
tance he had made in his outward passage. The greater pro- 
portion of his earnings, besides Avhat he had expended in his 
own support, had been loaned to Ralph and his companion, 
so that he left England poorer than when he entered it. He 
sailed from Gravesend on the 23d July, 1726, and landed in 
Philadelphia on the 11th of the following October. His old 
acquaintance and employer, Keimer, appeared to be in a 
more thriving condition than when he left, having a larger 
establishment and a better supply of material; but as Frank- 
lin had relinquished his trade, as he thought forever, he be- 
come interested in the success of his new occupation, and 
gave but little thought to his former companions. Denham 
took a store on Water street, and Franklin not only became 
his clerk but his friend. They lived together in the most un- 
interrupted harmony until the following February, when Mr. 
Denham was seized by an attack of disease, that soon after 
terminated in death, leaving Franklin, who had just recovered 
Irom a very severe attack of pleurisy, once more alone in the 
world. 

Franklin, who was now about twenty-one years of age, 
was induced by an offer of liberal wages, to return to his trade, 



28 FRANKLIN. [1727. 

and undertake the management of Keimer's establishment, 
Avhich comprised a number of poor and inexperienced work- 
men. Keimer and himself quarrelled in less than six 
montlis, and he left his employ, and soon after established 
himself in the printing business on his own account in part- 
nership with an intemperate man named Meredith, whose 
father furnished one hundred pounds to enable them to pur- 
chase the necessary materials to commence business. This 
connexion was soon broken up by the embarrassment of their 
concern, and the withdrawal of Meredith. Franklin's friends 
now came to his aid, and loaned him what money was neces- 
sary to carry on his establishment. Keimer, in the meantime, 
who had started a newspaper, finding it an unprofitable con- 
cern, offered it to Franklin for a small sum, w^hich he gladly 
paid, and undertook its management. His qualifications as a 
writer Avere now of great use to him. By a series of fortu- 
nate circumstances, as weU, perhaps, as a sprightly manner of 
writing, it soon grew in public favor, and commanded a large 
circulation for that period. He likewise received the appoint- 
ment of printer to the Assembly, by an expedient which, 
however just it may be in trade, looked very much like an 
attempt to overreach his fellow-printers. This was the re- 
printing of an address from the House to the Governor, which 
had been badly executed by the government printer, and 
placing one on each member's table, in order that tliey miglit 
see the difference. Indeed, many of the transactions con- 
nected Avith Franklin's early career as a printer in Philadel- 
phia are marked by a sly and cunning dealing, of which we 
should have imagined maturcr years and calmer reflections 
would have made him heartily ashamed, had he not in old 



jEt. 21.] CO URT SHIP,— MARRIAGE. 29 

age seen fit to record them with a species of self gratulation, 
rather than matters to be included in his errata. 

Ill tracing his humble, but successful progress into busi- 
ness, we have, like Franklin himself, well nigh forgotten 
Miss Reed, or as she now was, Mrs. Rogers. Under the 
influence produced by the stunning effects of Franklin's let- 
ter to her, the half bewildered girl had yielded to the solici- 
tations of her parents, and married a man named Rogers, a 
potter by trade, who proved in every way unworthy of her. 
She soon after separated from him, and refused even to bear 
his name, as it was reported, that he had another wife then 
living. 

Franklin, in the meantime, lodged with Godfrey, the in- 
ventor of Hadley's Quadrant, and soon became engaged to a 
young lady, a relation of Mrs. Godfrey's. This match was 
broken ofij because the girl could not bring him a jointure suf- 
ficient to pay the debt then hanging over his printing estab- 
lishment. His thoughts were now turned once more to his 
first love, her husband having sometime before left for the 
West Indies,' where he was reported to have died. " I pitied," 
says Franklin, "poor Miss Reed's unfortunate situation, who 
was generally dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided com- 
pany. I considered my giddiness and inconstancy when in 
London, as in a great degree, the cause of her unhappiness ; 
though the mother was good enough to think the fault more 
her own than mine, as she had prevented our marrying before 
I went thither, and persuaded the other match in ni}^ absence. 
Our mutual affection was revived, but there were now great 
objections to our union ; that match was indeed looked upon as 
invalid, a preceding wife being said to be living in England, but 



30 FRANKLIN. [1730 

this could not easily be proved, because of the distance, &c., 
and though there was a report of his death, it was not certain. 
Then, though it should be true, he had left many debts which 
his successor might be called upon to pay ; we ventured, how- 
ever, over all these difficulties, and I took her to wife, Sep- 
tember 1, 1730. None of the inconveniencies happened that 
we apprehended. She proved a good and faithful helpmate ; 
assisted me much by attending to the shop ; we throve to- 
gether, and ever mutually endeavored to make each other 
happy. Thus I corrected that great erratum, as wxll as I 
could." 

Franklin sat up his married establishment on a very eco- 
nomical scale, and lived in the most frugal manner. He 
" kept no idle servants," but probably imposed all the menial 
labor of their slender houshold upon his wife, who not only 
cheerfully performed this duty, but likewise assisted him 
in his business, by attending the shop, and folding and stitch- 
ing pamphlets. Franklin was never particularly fond of eat- 
ing, and while a mere youth, was unable to tell the dishes of 
"wiiich his dinner was composed. Frugality in diet, was not 
therefore, a very great virtue with him, because having no 
strong natural appetite to overcome, he exercised less for- 
bearance in its performance, but with the plans of life he had 
established for himself, it was exceedingly convenient. His 
breakfast consisted of bread and milk, served up in an earthen 
porringer, and eaten with a pewter spoon. His wife after- 
wards purchased for him, without his knowledge, a china 
bowl and silver spoon, giving as a reason, that "she thought 
her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well 
as any of his neighbors." 



-^T. 24.] JUNTO— LIBRARY SCHEME. 31 

In his dress and habits he likewise preserved a scrupulous 
regard for what his fellow townsmen might think and say of 
him. Early and late he was engaged at his employment; and 
frequently, with a rather ostentatious display of meekness, 
not in keeping with his real sentiments, trundled home his 
purchases of paper on a wheelbarrow. Now, Franklin had 
been very much elated at an earlier day with the visit and 
acquaintance of the finely dressed Sir William Keith and 
Colonel French, and he acknowledges that his apparent dis- 
regard for such appearances, in his household and person, 
was a species of dissimulation, intended to attract the notice 
and win the regard of those who might aid him in his busi- 
ness. How far this course served him, it would now be dif- 
ficult to determine, as every thing depends on the compo- 
sition of society into which one chances to be thrown ; but 
his frugality in living, and determination to expend less than 
he made, however little that might be, has always opened one 
of the surest and most permanent roads to wealth. The dif- 
ficulty in most business pursuits does not so much consist in 
making money, as in retaining possession of it after it is 
made. 

The Philadelphia library, now one of the largest in the 
United States, owes its inception to a movement made by 
Franklin about this period, to collect the works of a few 
friends together, for their mutual benefit and entertainment. 
He had, a year or so previous, established a society called 
the Junto, in which various topics, frequently of a political 
character, were discussed. An anonymous pamphlet "on 
the nature and necessity of a paper currency," written when 
he was but twenty-three years of age, grew out of a series of 



32 FRANKLIN. [1732. 

discussions in which he engaged at the Junto, and furnishes 
a pretty fair specimen of his style of reasoning, not only at 
this early period, but in maturer years. It was favorably re- 
ceived at the time, and although it presents many fallacies, is 
supposed to have induced the assembly to pass a law soon 
after for the permanent establishment of a loan office. 

Being frequently at a loss for books for reference, he pro- 
posed to the members of the society, to bring their books to 
the room of meeting, in order that they might be of service 
to all of the members. The plan was agreed to, and the 
germ from which the Franklin or Philadelphia Library shot 
forth, was thus planted. It afterwards, during Franklin's 
life, became a subscription library, and continues to be so to 
the present day : it is now the second in size in the United 
States. A large proportion of the articles on speculative sub- 
jects, published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, owe their origin 
to the discussions of this Junto. 

With the means for study furnished to him by this library, 
he began to make amends for the want of an early education, 
by applying himself, during the hours set apart each day for 
that purpose, not only to general reading, but close study. 
He soon became sufficiently acquainted with the French, 
Spanish and Italian languages, to read them fluently, and 
likewise made considerable proficiency in the Latin. 

In 1732 he began the publication of Poor Richard's Alma- 
nac, which he continued for a quarter of a century. It be- 
came very popular and profitable, so much so that he fre- 
quently found sale for ten thousand copies a year. In 1736 
he was made clerk to the general assembly, and in 1737, 
deputy post master at Philadelphia. These were his first 



^Et, 26.] PUBLIC EMPLOYMENTS. 33 

steps in that political preferment, which in one capacity or an- 
other occupied a good portion of his time for the remainder of 
his life. It is not, however, the political services of Franklin 
that mainly attract our attention in the life that now engages 
us, and however much they may be valued in another place, 
we win be pardoned for running over them with some haste, 
in order to dwell more particularly on his scientific labors and 
researches. 

His public employments turned his attention to public af- 
fairs, from which not a few good results flowed to the citizens 
of Philadelphia. As there was nothing too high to occupy 
his mind, so there was nothing too insignificant to fix his at- 
tention. One of his first public acts, was a complete and ef- 
fectual re-organization of the city night watch. The second, 
a league for suppressing fires. The company formed under 
his suggestions agreed to keep in a convenient place, and 
carry to be used at fires, a certain number of leather buckets. 
This practice grew to be universal in the United States, and 
continued until within a few years since, when the introduc- 
tion of a more complete fire apparatus superseded their use. 

The plan he adopted for conducting his newspaper, styled 
the "Pennsylvania Gazette," is worthy of aU admiration and 
imitation. "In the conduct of my newspaper," he remarks, 
" I carefully excluded all libelling and personal abuse, which 
is of late years become so disgraceful to our country. When- 
ever I was solicited to insert any thing of that kind, and the 
writers pleaded, as they did, the liberty of the press, and that 
a newspaper was like a stage coach, in which any one who 
would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I 
would print the piece separately if desired, and the au- 



34 FRANKLIN. [1739. 

tlior could have as many copies as he pleased to distribute 
himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his de- 
traction, and that having contracted with my subscribers to 
furnish them with what might be either useful or entertaining, 
I could not fill their papers with private altercation, in which 
they had no concern, without doing them manifest injustice." 

Among the earliest of his strictly scientific productions, is 
an essay on the causes of earthquakes, published in his news- 
paper, December 15th, 1737, giving a succinct account of the 
received opinions among philosophers, as to their causes and 
phenomena. When we take into consideration, that this pa- 
per was written before the discovery of the compound nature 
of air and water, it is certainly not unworthy of the future 
philosopher. The theory of the fluidity of the interior of the 
earth, is now pretty generally entertained, and more of the 
geological phenomena are developed by considering it a mass 
of moulten liquid, than upon any other supposition. The im- 
mediate origin of this paper, and Franklin never wrote 
without an immediate object, was the slight shock felt but a 
short time previous tliroughout the greater portion of the 
North American continent. 

In 1739, George Whitfield, a dissenting clergyman of very 
persuasive manners, and gifted with the highest order of orato- 
rical powers, made his appearance at Philadelphia, and soon 
enlisted Franklin as one of his warmest admirers and most 
steadfast friends. The truth is, Franklin was not averse to 
religious discourses, as such, provided they were delivered in 
an eloquent or emphatic manner, but was decidedly opposed 
to polemical disquisitions, as he could see no good reason for 
the exaltation of one sect on the ruins of another, consider- 



iEx. 33.] ANECDOTE OF WHITFIELD. 35 

ing them all as charged with the same high and holy mission. 
The following anecdote very aptly illustrates the wonderful 
power exercised by Whitfield over his auditors. He had 
been induced by many painful representations made to him 
to visit the colony of Georgia, and found the inhabitants of it, 
who were principally decayed English shop-keepers, with 
their families, plunged in the deepest distress, and perishing 
in large numbers. Deeply moved by the helpless condition 
of the whole colony, and more especially by that of the 
widows and orphans of those who had died, leaving them ex- 
posed to all the evils of want and misery, in a new and unre- 
claimed country, he conceived the benevolent idea of building 
an orphan house for them, and returned to Philadelphia for 
the purpose of collecting the means necessary to put his plan 
into execution. Many doubted the honesty of his motives ; 
but Franklin, who knew him to be sincere, was opposed to 
the plan of building the house in Georgia, and preferred that 
it should be erected in Philadelphia. Whitfield persisted in 
his original intention, and Franklin declined subscribing. " I 
happened," says Franklin, "soon after, to attend one of his 
sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to 
finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get 
nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper 
money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. 
As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the 
copper. Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of 
that, and determined me to give the silver, and he finished 
so admirably, that I emptied my pocket whoUy into the col- 
lector's dish, gold and all." 

Franklin, whose mind was almost instinctively turned to- 



36 FRANKLIN. [1743. 

wards philosophical pursuits, felt the want of some defined 
organization to aflbrd its protection and patronage to learned 
men ; and, as with him, to conceive was to execute, he imme- 
diately set himself to the task of rearing in the midst of the 
American forests an institution, which should not only have 
the name but the attributes of a learned society. He accord- 
ingly issued a circular, dated the 14th of May, 1743, propo- 
sing the plan for "the American Philosophical Society," since 
adopted. This circular was printed on separate sheets of pa- 
per, and sent to such persons as were thought to possess suf- 
ficient learning and public zeal to further this object. This 
was the first published notice of the organization of a society 
which has for so long a period maintained a high place among 
the learned bodies of the world. 

The society suggested in these proposals, was organized a 
few months afterwards, and elected Thomas Hopkinson its 
president, and Benjamin Franklin its secretary. The society 
was at first composed of but few members — about one-half of 
whom resided in Philadelphia, and the remainder in the dif- 
ferent American colonies. In a letter, addressed by Franklin 
to Dr. Cadwalader Golden, of New York, on the 5th of April, 
1744, the result of its organization is given, as well as a list 
of its first members. This gentleman proposed to Franklin, 
the propriety of publishing the proceedings of the society 
from time to time ; but, probably from want of funds, the plan 
was not immediately adopted, and its first volume of Trans- 
actions did not appear before the year 1769. 

In the meantime, Franklin, in a letter to Golden, written in 
November, 1745, says: " I am now determined to publish an 
American philosophical miscellany, monthly or quarterly. I 



^T. 37.] PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 37 

shall begin with next January, and proceed as I find encour- 
agement and assistance." This was one of the few designs 
conceived by Franklin, never carried into execution. In the 
organization of this society, Franklin had probably anticipated 
somewhat the times in which he lived — for it does not appear 
to have met with much encouragement, and after a few years 
of feeble existence, lapsed into a slumber, in which it was 
permitted to repose until November, 1767. 

At this time, Dr. Bond succeeded in reviving it, by calling 
together its old members and electing a number of new ones. 
During the following year, the medical society of Philadelphia 
was incorporated with it, and negotiations were opened to 
unite with it a rival society. On the 2d of January, 1769, 
these two societies were united under the title of the Ame- 
rican Philosophical Society, and elected Franklin as their 
President, which office he continued to hold until his death. 

His attention was soon diverted from the scheme of the 
Philosophical Society by a new phase in the then open rup- 
ture between England and Spain. This latter power being 
joined by France, Philadelphia felt herself greatly endan- 
gered from the invasion of the hostile armies of Spain and 
her ally. The creed of the Quakers prevented them from 
joining in open hostilities, even to protect their own fire- 
sides, and no little manceuvering was necessary in order 
to overcome their scruples, and enlist them in the defence of 
the colonies. The Governor having in vain importuned the 
Legislature, a majority of whom were Friends, to pass a 
militia law, and other means of defence, Franklin proposed 
to effect the object by a voluntary subscription, and in order 
to prepare the way for it, published a pamphlet entitled 



38 FRANKLIN 



[1744. 



Plain Truth, in which he set forth their feeble condition so 
vividly, that it produced an immediate and decided feeling in 
favor of the movement, and to his instrumentality is generally 
attributed the preservation of the city from offensive invasion. 

It would appear that this opposition to the use of defensive 
means, frequently placed this sect in an awkward position, 
from which they managed to extricate themselves with great 
adroitness. Thus, when on one occasion a demand was made 
upon the Assembly by the Governor for an appropriation to 
purchase powder to enable the New England government 
to sustain itself, they refused to grant the demand, but ap- 
propriated three thousand pounds, to be placed in the hands 
of the Governor to be expended in the purchase of bread, 
flour, wheat or other grain, which the Governor understood 
to mean powder, and made this disposition of the funds. 

Franklin, at a later period, when a member of the Legisla- 
ture, wishing to obtain the passage of a law to create a lot- 
tery to raise funds for keeping the city fortified, proposed in 
case the measure failed, to ask that the proceeds of the lottery 
should be expended in the purchase of a fire engine. "Then," 
said he to a fellow member, " if you nominate me, and I you, 
as a committee for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, 
which is certainly a fire engine." 

In 1742, he invented the famous stove, which now bears 
his name, and which is as extensively used in America at the 
present day as perhaps any other, except the one known by 
the name of the "ten-plate stove." He published an essay 
on warming houses, in 1744, intended mainly to explain the 
qualities of his invention, which was caught up by stove 
makers in England, and defectively constructed, so as to do 



Mr. 38.] 



BUSINESS RELATIONS. 39 



away with many of its advantages.* The invention of this 
stove proved to be so great a public benefaction, that the Gov- 
ernor offered him a patent for the exclusive right to vend it 
for a term of years, which he declined, improperly, we think, 
because the profit was only transferred from his own pocket 
to the dealers who vended the article, who having more re- 
o-ard for their sains than its reputation, manufactured it in the 
slightest possible manner. 

Franklin's pecuniary circumstances were day by day be- 
coming more prosperous. " My business," he remarks, " was 
now constantly augmenting, and my circumstances growing 
daily easier, my newspaper having become very profitable, as 
being for a time the only one in that and the neighboring pro- 
vinces. I experienced, too, the truth of the observation, 
' that after getting the first hundred pounds, it is more easy to 
get the second;' money itself being of a prolific nature." He 
now felt himself somewhat at Uberty to retire from the more 
active labors of his occupation, in order to devote more of 
his time to scientific pursuits, which he cultivated with great 
avidity and delight. With this view, he associated with him 
in business, in 1748, Mr. David HaU, a man of worth and in- 
tegrity, and weU known to Franklin, having been in his em- 
ploy some years previous. Neither had occasion to regret 
the association, which continued to the mutual satisfaction 
and profit of both for nearly twenty years. 

He was not particularly attached to money for itself, but 
rather as a means of aiding him in the attainment of higher 
objects, nor did he entertain any great desire to enrich his 

*PIayfair says that this treatise is " infinitely more original, concise and 
scientific than that of Count Rumford's," on the same subject. 



40 FRANKLIN, 



[1748. 



immediate posterity by his gains. On this subject, he thus 
writes to his mother: "As to your grand-children, Will is 
now nineteen years of age, a tall proper youth, and much of 
a beau. He acquired a habit of idleness on the expedition, 
but begins of late to apply himself to business, and I hope 
will become an industrious man. He imagined his father had 
got enough for him, but I have assured him, that I intend to 
spend what little I have myself, if it please God that I live 
long enough, and as he by no means wants acuteness, he can 
see by my going on, that I mean to be as good as my word." 

This letter likewise informs us as to his mode of disposing 
of his time. "For my own part," it continues, "at present, 
I pass my time agreeably enough; I enjoy (through mercy) a 
tolerable share of health. I read a great deal, ride a little ; 
do a little business for myself, (and now and then for others;) 
retire when I can, and go into company when I please ; f 
the years roll round, and the last wiU come, when I would 
rather have it said, he lived usefully than he died rich." 

Franklin's mind was too active long to continue without 
employment of some kind ; and as he had, in a great measure, 
become disconnected from his own private business, he found 
himself insensibly more and more engaged with the affairs 
of the public, acting upon the hint contained in the letter to 
his mother, written about this period, that he would rather live 
usefully than die wealthy. He always recurred with great 
pleasure to the few months of instruction he had received at 
a grammar school, and the advantages he derived from this 
brief period of instruction, as well as the want he felt of the 
necessity for a more extended course, made him a steadfast 
Mend to similar institutions. 



^T.42.] ACADEMY-UNIVERSITY. 41 

He had accordingly no sooner arranged his private affairs 
in such a manner as to require less of his attention than 
heretofore, than he sought to revive a plan, set on foot by 
himself some few years previous, without success, to estab- 
lish an Academy in Philadelphia, on a highly respectable 
footing. After enUsting a number of personal friends in the 
matter, he wrote and published a pamphlet, caUed " Proposals 
relating to the education of youth in Pennsylvaniar which he 
distributed without charge, to the principal inhabitants. This 
pamphlet, written in his usual plain and forcible style, set 
forth the want and advantages of education, and laid down a 
plan of instruction to be pursued. It was accompanied by 
a large coUection of notes and quotations from the ablest 
writers on the subject of education. The way being thus 
prepared, he set a subscription on foot, that amounted to over 
nve thousand pounds. 

Franklin had long previous to this period, learned that the 
raost effectual way of accomplishing any matter of public 
utility, or one which depended on the public for its support, 
was to withdraw as much as possible from their gaze, and al- 
low it to be considered as the work of others, rather than that 
of the individual most zealous in pressing it forward, for as he 
wisely remarks, "the present little sacrifice of your vanity 
will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains a while un- 
certain to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain than 
yourself may be encouraged to claim it, and then even envy 
will be disposed to do you justice by plucking these assumed 
feathers, and restoring them to their right owner." 

In his scheme of the academy, therefore, he presented it 
not as a plan of his own, "but of some public spirited gentle- 
6 



42 FRANKLIN. [1751. 

TwcTi," and its result verified his own shrewd observation 
just quoted, for no one now thinks of ascribing its orig-in to 
any other source than himself. The academy went into im- 
mediate operation, and so flourishing was its condition, that 
the building it occupied was found inadequate to accommo- 
date the number of scholars demanding admittance, and a 
new one was obtained through the agency of its projector and 
steadfast friend, with the understanding that a charitable 
school should be attached to it. It received a charter 14th 
May, 1755, from the Proprietaries, conferring upon it colle- 
giate privileges, and considerable additional grants. 

In 1765, it was increased by the addition of a medical de- 
partment, and finally, in 1779, assumed the dignity and title 
of the University of Pennsylvania. " I have been continued 
one of the trustees," adds Franklin, "from the beginning, 
now near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure 
of seeing a number of the youth, who have received their 
education in it, distinguished by their improved abilities, ser- 
vicable in public stations, and ornaments to their country." 

His services were considered so valuable to the community 
in which he lived, that he was called upon to fill many public 
stations. The Governor made him a justice of the peace at 
a time when it was considered highly honorable to fiU that 
post; the people elected him to the council, and afterwards 
selected him as an alderman, and he was returned to fiU a 
seat in the assembly, a post occupied by him for ten consecu- 
tive years, and more to his credit, from the circumstance 
that he never solicited it, or a re-election. 

Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of Franklin's, and an 
associate of his in the Philosophical Society, took up very 



JEt. 45.] PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL. 43 

warmly the project of establishing an hospital, but wherever 
he went he was coldly met with an equivocal answer. "At 
length," says Franklin, "he came to me with the compliment 
that he found there was no such thing as carrying a public 
spirited project through without my being concerned in it. 
For, said he, I am often asked by those to whom I propose 
subscribing, Have you consulted Franklin on this business ? 
And what does he think of it? And when I tell them that I 
have not, supposing it rather out of your line, they do not 
subscribe, but say, they will consider it." 

The project happened to be in Franklin's "line," and by 
means of the warm support he gave to his friend, he was en- 
abled by a joint private subscription, and donations from the 
assembly, to carry it through, and after the lapse of nearly a 
century, it now presents itself as one of the first institutions 
of the kind in the United States, and one of the proudest and 
most praiseworthy monuments of the gifted and public spir- 
ited mind, through whose agency it was established. Most 
truly has he obtained his wish in having posterity say of him, 
that he lived usefully, if he did not die rich. 

But as we have already had repeated occasions to notice, 
the project need not be necessarily great, to attract his atten- 
tion. He had the fortune, whether good or bad, of living in 
a town which was rapidly changing its character from a vil- 
lage to a populous city, and all of the different wants incident to 
the latter, had yet to be supplied. Street paving and cleansing, 
were then unknown, and lighting, an experiment to be tried. 
For each of these, either as the original suggestor or im- 
prover of that suggested by others, Philadelphia is indebted 
to his public spirit. 



44 FRANKLIN. [1753. 

The affairs of the colonial post-office were in any thing but 
a prosperous condition at the time when Franklin first became 
associated with it. The accounts of the diff*erent deputies 
and others engaged in its management, were in a very con- 
fused state, and the Postmaster General dul}- appreciating his 
strict business qualities, empowered him to regidate the 
accounts of the various offices. Upon the death of that func- 
tionary, which occurred in 1753, he was appointed in con- 
nexion with William Hunter, Esq., to succeed him, by the 
English Government. This official emplo3'ment caused him 
to take a journey to New England, and while there he re- 
ceived the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Cambridge 
College, and likewise the same honor from Yale College. 
These degrees "were conferred," says Franklin, "in consid- 
eration of my improvements and discoveries in the electric 
branch of natural philosophy." 

The improvements and discoveries in electricity to which 
he alludes, may be best told by following the steps taken by 
Franklin in this important branch of science, and as his high 
claims as a philosopher are principally connected with them, 
it needs no apology for dwelling upon them at some length. 
Electricity, as a subject of scientific pursuit, does not appear 
to have attracted his particular attention prior to 1746. In 
that year he met at Boston a Scotch gentleman named 
Spence, who had an electrical apparatus, and performed some 
curious experiments, which being new to Franklin, interested 
him exceedinglv. By a singular coincidence the Philadel- 
phia Library shortly after his return home, received from 
Peter Collison, of London, and a member of the Eoyal So- 
ciety, a present of an electrical glass tube, with instructions 



45 



^T. 47.] LETTERS ON E LECTRICIT Y- 

for its use. Franklin, with this instrument, and a few others 
ordered to be made by himself, commenced a series of expe- 
riments, the results of which were detailed in a series of 
letters to INIr. CoUison, beginning with one dated 28th March, 
1747. Dr. Priestly, in speaking of these letters, says: 
"There is hardly any European language into which they 
have not been translated, and as if this were not sufficient to 
make them properly known, a translation of them has lately 
been made into Latin. It is not easy to say, whether we are 
most pleased with the simplicity and perspicuity with which 
tliese letters are written, the modesty with which the author 
proposes every hypothesis of his own, or the noble frankness 
with which he relates his mistakes, when they were corrected 
by subsequent experiments." 

Before detailing Franklin's experiments we shaU enter into 
a cursory review of what was known on this subject prior to 
his time. For a great number of ages philosophers were 
aware that amber possessed the power, when excited by 
friction, of attracting certain light bodies, and on this account 
it was supposed to be endowed with some peculiar living 
principle. From this substance the name of electricity is 
derived— from the Greek word ^iXikt^ov (amber). This was 
aU that was known of electricity before Dr. Gilbert, a physi- 
cian of London, ascertained that other substances besides 
amber possessed the power of attraction. Dr. Gilbert tried a 
sreat variety of experiments, and enlarged considerably the 
list of articles proven to be capable of attraction, which are 
enumerated in a Latin treatise written by him, styled "De 
Magnete." He ascertained that moisture at once arrested 
the°electrical phenomena, and that consequently his experi- 



46 FRANKLIN 



ments could not succeed in a damp atmosphere. As mio-ht 
be imagined, some very incongruous notions crept into his 
treatise, as that glass and other substances lost their virtue 
after being exposed to a high temperature. In a comparison 
instituted by him likewise, between electrical and magnetic 
phenomena, he remarks, that in magnetism both attraction 
and repulsion are seen, while in electricity attraction is the 
only power manifested. This work, published about three 
years before his death, was not only the most complete trea- 
tise on the subject then extant, but one of the first attempts 
made to establish a S3^stem of philosophical reasoning founded 
on actual experiments, so ably defended by Lord Bacon a 
few years later. 

Boyle went a step farther, and discovered that a substance, 
when electrified, was capable of attracting others not so, 
without regard to their kind. Thus he attracted particles of 
non-electrified amber, with electrified amber. He likewise 
found that the experiments could be performed in vacuo as 
well as the air, and hence concluded that the air had no 
agency in their production. 

Guericke ascertained about the same time, that when a body 
was once attracted by an electrized one, it was likewise 
repelled by it, and did not return until it had touched some 
other body. He also discovered that a body immersed in an 
electrical atmosphere, was itself electrified, but with an elec- 
tricity directly opposite to that of air. Guericke likewise re- 
marked the emission of light and sound in the passage of 
electricity from one body to another. His experiments were 
made with a compound globe of glass and sulphur, which lat- 
ter is now known to be unnecessary in exciting electrical 



BO YLE — 6UE RICKE — HAWKE SBEE. 47 



phenomena. This phenomena was also taken notice of in 
America as well as in England. In a letter addressed to Boyle, 
from Virginia, in 1684, by Mr. Clayton, and published in the 
philosophical transactions, notice is taken of a strange acci- 
dent which happened to Mrs. Sewall, whose clothing emitted 
flashing sparks. The same phenomena was noticed in the 
case of Lady Baltimore. 

Hawkesbee investigated the phenomena of electrical light, 
with greater care than any of his predecessors, and arrived at 
more gratifying and wonderful results. By what was proba- 
bly an accident, he discovered that crude mercury agitated in 
the exhausted receiver of an air pump, gave out momentary 
flashes of pale light to be seen darting in a great variety of 
directions, and suddenly subsiding. Further experiments 
convinced him that the entire exclusion of the air was not 
necessary to the success of the experiment, although he ima- 
gined it to be much more vivid in vacuo. 

He did not confine himself to mercury, but used a number 
of other substances, which produced a greater or less evolu- 
tion of light. Among other experiments, he caused a glass 
o-lobe to be so constructed that he could turn it with great ra- 
pidity, and after exhausting the air within, discovered, while 
the globe was in an electrical state, that the application of his 
hand to it, produced the emission of a strong light within the 
globe, but if he let air within, the light appeared without as 
well as within, and adhered to his fingers. This experiment 
led him to doubt the opinion he at first entertained, that the 
mercury was the cause of the light, yet although the thinnest 
possible gauze intervened betwixt him and the truth, it pre- 
vented him from discovering the true cause in the glass itself 



48 FRANKLIN. 



He performed a great number of other experiments in order to 
ascertain the quantity of electrical light that could be produced, 
which were so far successful, as to show the great amount 
and subtility of this fluid. These experiments are detailed at 
large, in his work published in 1709, where the reader cu- 
rious in such matters, can find them. 

He likewise made an experiment to show the attraction 
and repulsion of electricity. For this purpose, he tied a 
number of threads around a metallic wire hoop, with their 
ends floating loose. Whenever these floating ends were 
brought near to a glass cylinder, strongly excited, they were 
attracted to some particular part of the cylinder, and con- 
tinued pointing in that direction, in whatever way he held 
the wire hoop, for several minutes. If whilst the threads 
were pointing towards the cylinder, the finger was approached 
very near to them, they would be attracted towards it, but if 
it was held at the distance of an inch, they would be re- 
pelled. 

Sir Isaac Newton observed this phenomena of attraction 
and repulsion, although less distinctly than Mr. Hawkesbee. 
He placed some small pieces of paper beneath a small glass, 
strongly excited, contained in a metallic ring, and observed 
that whenever he brought his finger near to the glass, al- 
though neither the glass nor the papers beneath were touched, 
yet they assumed new positions dependent upon the presence 
of his finger. Neither of these philosophers understood or 
attempted to explain the phenomena further. 

Mr. Stephen Gray, a charter-house pensioner, in 1728, and 
the several succeeding years, engaged in a series of experi- 
ments, in part alone, and in part in conjunction with his 



DUFAYE'S DISCOVERIES. 49 



friends Wheeler and Godfrey, which resulted in the discovery 
of the power of native electrics to communicate that power 
to bodies in which it is not possible to excite it, and a classifi- 
tion of bodies into electrical, and non-electrical. A notice of 
the experiments which led to results so important, would ex- 
tend this work beyond our proposed limits, but are to be 
found at large in the abridged Philosophical Transactions.* 

M. Du Faye, a member of the French Academy of Sci- 
ences, repeated Gray's experiments, and found that all bodies, 
with the exception of metals, and those which were too soft 
to bear friction, might be made electric by heating, and then 
rubbing them. He likewise ascertained that the denser the 
substance, the greater the amount of friction required to pro- 
duce electrical action. Another discovery of his was, that all 
bodies, indiscriminately taken, were capable of receiving 
electricity when insulated on glass, and slightly warmed. 

The great additions made by him to the science, were the 
discovery of two fundamental laws, explaining many of its 
hitherto inexplicable phenomena. The first of these was, 
that all bodies highly charged with electricity attract those 
which are not so, and repel them as soon as they become 
electrified by contact with them ; the second, that there 
were two kinds of electricity, one of which he denominated 
vitreous, the other resinous, from the substances in which 
they were found. The peculiar properties of these two elec- 
tricities, he conceived, were, that while they attracted each 
other, they repelled themselves. 

For several years after the experiments of Du Faye and 
Gray, the principal additions made to electricity were of a 

*Abridg-ed Philosophical Transactions, from 1719 — '33, vol. vi. p. 7 — 27. 

7 



50 FRANKLIN. 



minor yet not unimportant character. Its nomenclature was 
improved, and classified under Desaguliers, and its machinery 
brought to a greater state of perfection than heretofore by 
the Germans. The tube was superseded by the globe, and it 
in turn by the cylinder. All these circumstances seemed to 
combine to open the way for a more brilliant discovery than 
had yet attended its rapid development. This discovery was 
the power of accumulating it in glass, called from the place 
of its discovery the Leyden Jar. This discovery took place 
in the year 1746, and appears to have been much less the 
result of accident than any of its predecessors. It is doubt- 
ful whether its authorship is due to Professor Muschenbroeck 
or Mr. Cuneus, but it ai:)pears very certain that the original 
suggestion grew out of a course of reasoning instituted by the 
Professor. He had noticed that when bodies surrounded 
by the atmosphere, were charged with electricity, its effect 
was transient, and the quantity accumulated small, and he 
conceived that as the air was full of conducting materials, if 
the bodies thus electrified were surrounded by electrics, they 
might accumulate a larger amount of electricity, and retain it 
for a longer period. A glass vessel containing water was 
selected for the experiment, as furnishing the most ready 
electric and non-electric substances, at their disposal. Se- 
veral attempts had been made without effect, when Professor 
M., who had the glass vessel containing the water, having 
a connexion with the prime conductor, in one hand, and 
with the other hand was attempting to disengage it, was sur- 
prised in the act of so doing by a sudden and violent shock, 
felt in his arms and breast, so intense as to deprive him mo- 
mentarily of breath. The shock, which was unexpected, 



WATSON — THE LEYDEN JAR. 51 



proved conclusively the correctness of the reasoning and the 
success of the experiment. The mode of demonstrating it, 
however, was not much to the satisfaction of the Professor, 
who, in writing to Reaumer, a few days after, describing it 
and its results, says that he would not "take a second shock 
for the kingdom of France." 

Dr. Watson took up the suggestions of the Leyden experi- 
menters and greatly amplified them. With the aid of Dr. 
Bevis, he arranged the jar, with its internal and external 
coating of metallic foil as it is now used, and in a paper read 
to the Philosophical Society, gave an exact and detailed ac- 
count of its action, so far as it was then known, and the ad- 
vantages resulting from the coatings of metallic foil. He 
made the observation that a circuit was necessary to induce 
the shock produced by it, and that where an individual simply 
touched one within the circuit, he did not experience any 
thing of the shock. He likewise remarked the coruscations 
of light as well as the sound elicited within the vial in the 
communication of the electricity, and seems to have ap- 
proached to the very verge of the discovery, which afterAvards 
rewarded the labors of Franklin, without perceiving it. 

Nor was Dr. Watson the only electrician whose attention 
was arrested by the phenomena of the Leyden jar, for no 
discovery in electricity prior to this period, ever created so 
profound a sensation, or induced so great an anxiety to wit- 
ness its results as this — results which while they inspired the 
profoundest philosophers with admiration, bafiled their most 
scrutinizing investigations. 

The Abbe Nolet, whose name is deservedly placed at the 
very head of continental electricians, and who was associ- 



52 FRANKLIN. 



ated with Du Faye in his satisfactory experiments, attempted 
to ascertain how many persons could be electrified by the jar 
at once. He accordingly placed all the members of the 
Carthusian convent at Paris, in a line, and extended it to nine 
hundred fathoms (toises,) by placing iron wires in the hands 
of each person. The whole community, on the discharge 
of the jar, equally felt the shock. He also produced death 
in birds and fishes, by the intensity of the electrical dis- 
charge. 

Having observed the effects of electricity on the living 
organization, he was induced to go a step farther, and showed 
that a diminution of weight was an invariable result of long 
continued electricity. The positions he assumed as the re- 
sults of his experiments, were, that electricity increases the 
natural evaporation of fluids, that those fluids are most affected 
which liave a disposition to evaporate themselves, and that 
they evaporate more readily where the tubes containing them 
are non-electrics. 

These positions were proved by electrifying capillary tubes 
containing water, which caused it to issue in a stream, pre- 
senting a very beautiful appearance when the experiment was 
made in the dark. He assumed that all organized bodies 
were a collection of capillary tubes filled with fluids, having 
a tendency, to a greater or 'less extent, to discharge them- 
selves. He conceived, therefore, that electricity might have 
some effect on the flow of saps in vegetables, and induce an 
increase of insensible perspiration in animals. 

These experiments convinced the Abbe Nolet of the ex- 
istence of an effluent matter, carrying with it the fluid particles 
of the body electrified, and the imbibition of electrical mat- 



ABBENOLET'STHEORY. 53 



ter, by a body when plunged into an electrified atmosphere, 
proved to him the presence of affluent matter; and hence 
arose his favorite theory of affluent and effluent currents, in 
which, however, he failed to notice the fundamental rule of 
Du Faye, that the electricity thus received, differed from the 
electricity of the air itself. This theory enlisted more dis- 
cussion and occupied a larger share of public attention than 
that of any other, before the tirrie of Franklin, and whatever 
its ultimate fate, it is very certain that its projector always 
continued to entertain the most unshaken confidence in its 
correctness, and advocated its claims with a display of inge- 
nuity and fund of invention, unsurpassed in the annals of 
scientific investigation. 

We have thus briefly placed before the reader the most im- 
portant facts connected with the discovery and development 
of electricity prior to the time when Franklin began his ex- 
periments, and as our purpose has been to condense a volu- 
minous subject into as small a compass as possible, we have 
only alluded to the more important of these, leaving others 
of minor interest, as well as a detailed account of the experi- 
ments of all untouched. 

In compliance with the promise made to Mr. Collinson a 
few months previous, Franklin addressed to him a letter 
dated 11th July, 1747, informing him of the discoveries he 
had made. The first of these was the power of pointed 
bodies to draw and throw off the electrical current. In order 
to demonstrate this, he placed an iron shot of three or four 
inches in diameter on the mouth of a glass bottle. He sus- 
pended immediately above it, by a silken thread fastened to 
the ceiling, a cork ball, in such a manner as to allow the 



54 FRANKLIN. 



cork to come in contact with the iron ball. When this ball 
was electrified the cork was repelled to the distance of about 
four inches from it. On approacliing a pointed bodkin to 
within about eight inches of the ball, the cork immediately 
returned to the shot. It was necessary to approach a blunt 
body to within an inch of the ball, to produce the same effect. 
When the exiiorimcnt Avith the pointed instrument was made 
in the dark, a light resembling that of a fire-fly was seen to 
culminate upon its point at a distance of one foot or more. 
Another discovery communicated by this letter was, that 
the electric fluid was not created by friction, but merel}'^ col- 
lected from the adjoining non-electric bodies, and he had suc- 
ceeded in demonstrating its afflux to the electrical spliere, as 
well as its efflux by means of little paper wind-mills, with 
the vanes fixed obliquely and turned on wire axes. This let- 
ter assumes the following propositions : 

1. "A person standing on wax, and rubbing the tube, and 
another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of 
them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) 
appear to be electrized to a person standing on the floor ; that 
is, he will perceive a spark on approaching each of them with 
his knuckle." 

2. " But if the persons on wax touch one another during 
the exciting of the tubes, neither of them will appear to be 
electrized." 

3. "If they touch one another after exciting the tube and 
drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark 
between them, than was between either of them and the per- 
son on the floor." 



POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY. 55 

4. " After such a strong spark, neither of them discovers 
any electricity." 

From these propositions he was led to conclude that the 
electric fluid was transmitted from the person who excited the 
electrical tube, to him who touched it, and that one received 
an undue portion of electricity at the expense of the indi- 
vidual from whom it was abstracted. " Hence have arisen," 
remarks Franklin, " some new terms among us, we say B. 
(and bodies like circumstanced) is electrized positively, and 
A. ne<miively." These terms have, since his day, continued 
in general use, as expressing the different electrical states. 
Dr. Watson, in a paper published in January, 1748, developed 
the same theory, but as Franklin's letter was written several 
months before, the priority of the discovery is certainly due 
to him. It is but justice to Dr. Watson to add, that, at 
the time of communicating his discovery, he was not aware 
of the existence of this letter. Franklin had no sooner 
established to his own satisfaction these opposite electrical 
states, than he attempted to apply them to a development of 
the phenomena of the Leyden jar, which formed the subject 
of another letter addressed to the same geiTtleman, dated 
1st September, 1747, and a subsequent one in the following 

year. 

In these letters he demonstrated that when one side of the 
glass was positively electrified, the other was negative ; that 
the quantity of electric fire within the jar remained the same, 
all its phenomena being dependent upon its unequal distribu- 
tion ; and that this equilibrium could not be restored from 
within the jar, but must come from without. " So wonder- 
ful," adds he, " are these two states of electricity, the jdus 



56 FRANKLIN. 



and minus combined and balanced, in this miraculous bottle, 
situated and related to each other in a manner that I cannot 
comprehend ! If it were possible that a bottle should in one 
part contain a quantity of air strongly compressed, and in an- 
other part a vacuum, we know that equilibrium would be in- 
stantly restored within. But here we have a bottle contain- 
ing at the same time, ^plenum of electrical fire, and a vacuum 
of the same fire ; and yet the equilibrium cannot be restored 
between them but by a communication from without, though 
the plenum presses violently to expand, and the hungry va- 
cuum seems to attract as violently to be filled." 

These important results were confirmed by him in a series 
of very beautiful experiments, in the making of which he 
was led to notice a number of circumstances in connexion 
with the Leyden jar, which had not heretofore attracted the 
attention of experimenters. One of the most important of 
these, was that the whole force of the battery resided in the 
glass, the non-electrics in contact with it both within and 
without, serving no other purpose than to give and receive 
electricity from the glass. 

Upon ascertaining this fact, by a very ingenious experi- 
ment, he constructed what he termed an electrical battery, 
of plates of glass, coated with leaden plates, placed on silken 
cords, at two inches distant from each other, so arranged as 
to render them capable of being discharged together, or sepa- 
rately. The effect of this battery was equal to that of the 
jars, proving that their peculiar construction was unnecessary. 

He farther proved that the electric fluid resided in the 
glass, by gilding it over, and coating it with turpentine var- 
nish. On inducing an electrical discharge, a hole was made 



IDENTITY OF LIGHTNING AND ELECTRICITY. 57 

in the gilding, and the varnish, though dry and hard, was 
burnt by the spark and gave a strong smell and visible 
smoke. "It is amazing to observe," he adds, "in how small 
a portion of glass, a great electrical force may lie. A thin 
glass bubble, about an inch in diameter, weighing only six 
grains, being half filled with water, partly gilt on the outside, 
and furnished with a wire hook, gives, when electrified, as 
great a shock as a man can well bear. As the glass is 
thickest near the orifice, I suppose the lower half, which being 
gilt, was electrified, and gave the shock, did not exceed two 
grains, for it appeared, when broken, much thinner than the 
upper half. If one of these thin bottles be electrified by the 
coating, and the spark taken out through the gilding, it will 
break the glass inwards, at the same time that it breaks the 
o-ildino; outwards." 

But however wonderful the discoveries of Franklin may 
have appeared to the learned world at the time of his making 
them known, they sink into insignificance when compared 
with that we are now about to describe. Mr. Gray, in commu- 
nicating his discoveries to the Royal Society, remarks, that 
" in time there may be found out a way to collect a greater 
quantity of the electrical fire, and consequently to increase 
the force of that power, which by several of these experi- 
ments, si licet magnis componere jmrva, seems to be of the 
same nature, with that of thunder and lightning." A fcAV 
years later Abbe Nolet says, " If any one should take upon 
him to prove, from a well connected comparison of phe- 
nomena, that thunder in the hands of nature, is what elec- 
tricity is in ours, that the wonders which we now exhibit at 
our pleasure, are little imitations of those great effects which 



58 FRANKLIN 



frighten us, and that the whole depends upon the same 
mechanism ; if it is to be demonstrated that a cloud, prepared 
by the action of the winds, by heat, by a mixture of exha- 
lations, &c., is opposite to a terrestrial object, that this is the 
electrized body, and at a certain proximity from that which is 
not, I declare that the idea, if well supported, would give 
me a great deal of pleasure ; and in support of it how many 
spacious reasons present themselves to a man well acquainted 
with electricity." 

Little did the good Abbe imagine that while he wa-ote, the 
man was living, who would demonstrate to him the truth of 
his philosophical dream, and still less did he imagine, that so 
far from experiencing the pleasure which he avows such a 
development would give him, he would array himself as the 
most formidable enemy of the discoverer and his theory. 
But whilst Gray, the Abbe Nolet, and others of less note, 
amused themselves with this dimly shadowed phantasm, whose 
proportions were too indistinct to impress themselves with the 
reality of life upon their minds, and whose phenomena were 
too obscure to enable them to reveal the mystery that flitted 
before their vision, Franklin, with a loftier flight of genius, 
first assumed the identity of electricity and lightning, and 
afterwards attempted to demonstrate this identity by experi- 
ments. ^^Ijyiilst there is nothing in the whole history of elec- 
tricity more sublime than this discovery, there is nothing 
which more vividly impresses us with the great reasoning 
powers of its discoverer, than the manner in which he seized 
upon and developed this problem. No accident, no fortuitous 
combination of circumstances, or no lucky hit, induced Frank- 
lin to assume this identity, but those rigid deductions from 



PHENOMENA OF THUNDER6USTS. 59 



analogies, which none but a mind of the highest order of rea- 
soning powers, is capable of carrying out to their ultimate 
conclusions, and he was as well satisfied in his own mind of 
this identity before he made his first experiment, as he was 
enabled to satisfy others, after the series had been completed. 

The communication made to Mr. Collinson, on the subject 
of Leyden jars, was followed by one explaining " the several 
phenomena of thundergusts," in which he established the 
identity between electricity and lightning. Franklin assumed 
that "non-electric bodies that have electric fire thrown into 
them, will retain it till other electrics that have less ap- 
proach, and then it is communicated by a snap,, and becomes 
equally divided ;" that electricity is attracted by water, and 
can subsist with it ; that air is an electric per se, and when 
dry will not conduct electricity ; that if the water, from the 
vapor of which clouds are formed, is electrified, the vapor 
will be electrified likewise, and floating in the air in the form 
of clouds, will retain that electricity until they meet with other 
clouds or bodies not so highly electrified, when a discharge of 
electricity and an equilibrium will take place; that clouds raised 
by water from the land, do not contain as much electricity as 
those raised from water from the sea ; and that when a great 
number of clouds from the land and sea meet, the electrical 
flashes appear to strike in different parts, as they are jostled 
together by the wind, and they continue to give and receive 
flash after flash until the equilibrium is restored. 

Having thus pointed out the mode by which clouds can 
accumulate and retain electricity, he proceeds to show some 
of the similarities between the effects of lightning and elec- 
tricity. 



60 FRANKLIN, 



An electric spark when drawn from an irregular body at a 
considerable distance, is crooked, and so is a flash of lightning 
from a cloud which is irregular. 

High trees, towers, masts of ships and elevated points of 
land, are first to attract lightning ; pointed conductors in like 
manner, draw off the electric fluid from highly charged bodies, 
in preference to blunt ones, or flat surfaces ; hence the danger 
of standing under a tree in a thunder storm. 

Electricity is readily conducted by water — so is lightning ; 
a wet rat cannot be killed by exploding an electrical bottle — 
a dry one may be. On the same principle, wet clothing is a 
great protection to an individual struck by lightning, because 
the lightning may flow off with water on the clothing : other- 
wise it will seek the body, being composed of fluid parti- 
cles. The writer once knew a colored man to be preserved 
in this manner. The lightning passed down his side and tore 
off his shoe, but did the man little injury beyond the severe 
shock he experienced. 

" Electricity is capable of setting fire to hard dry rosin, 
spirits, and other substances — so is lightning ; hay-stacks, 
barns, and other things, are often set on fire in this manner. 

" Electricity fuses metals under some circumstances — so 
does lightning. 

" Lightning rends some bodies — so does the electrical 
spark. 

" Lightning is frequently fatal to animal life — and so is 
electricity." 

" Reading," remarks Franklin in continuing the similar- 
ities between lightning and electricity, " in the ingenious 
Dr. Miles' account of the thunder-storm at Stretham, the 



THEELECTRICALKITE. 61 



effect of the lightning in stripping off all the paint that had 
covered a gilt moulding," without hurting the rest of the 
paint, I tried the same experiment with the electrical shock, 
and with the same result. 

The analogy between the two principles being thus proved, 
Franklin proceeded to establish the identity beyond any pos- 
sibility of doubt, by actual experiment, and attempted the 
bold project of bringing down the lightning from the heavens, 
and subjecting it to the test of his analysis. He at first pro- 
posed to effect this object by placing a sentry box on some 
elevated tower or spire, from which could be raised a pointed 
metallic conductor, terminated beneath by a cake of wax, for 
the purpose of insulating it. At that time no building was to 
be found in Philadelphia sufficiently elevated, and while wait- 
ing for the erection of a church spire, then in process of build- 
ing, the thought occurred to him that he might with greater 
readiness secure a contact with the clouds by means of an 
" electrical kite," which differed from the one in common use, 
only in material; it being made of a silk handkerchief, instead 
of paper, the former being less likely to be affected by the 
rain. The top of this was terminated by an iron point, and 
in communication with this point was a hempen cord, joined 
near the bottom to one of silk ; where the hempen and silk 
cords were united, he attached a metallic key. 

Thus prepared, he went out on the commons, on the ap- 
proach of a thunder-storm, accompanied by his son, to whom 
alone he confided his intention, fearing the ridicule that might 
attach to an unsuccessful experiment of the kind, and having 
protected himself from the rain by a small shed, he raised 
his kite in the air and awaited the issue. A thunder-cloud 



62 FRANKLIN 



passed over without affecting his kite, and he began almost to 
despair of success, when he remarked the loose fibres of his 
string in motion, and bristling, in an upright position, as if 
placed on a conductor. On applying his knuckle to the key, 
he experienced a smart shock in his finger, accompanied by a 
bright spark. The experiment had succeeded, and his theory 
was proved. It would be easier to imagine than to describe 
his sensations at this moment. The string soon became wet 
with the rain, and in this condition, being a better conductor, 
he was enabled to collect an abundant supply of electricity, 
with which he charged a jar prepared for that purpose, and 
afterwards exhibited with it all the phenomena developed by 
the Leyden jar charged by the electric battery. 

This experiment was made in June, 1752. It had been 
successfully performed about one month previous, in Paris, 
by M. De Lor, on the plan proposed by Franklin, although at 
the time of making the experiment in Philadelphia, he had 
not be^n apprized either of the attempt or the result. Frank- 
lin, in alluding to it, and the manner in which his letters 
were received in Europe, with great modesty says: "What 
gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was 
the success of one of its proposed* experiments made by 
Messieurs Dalibard and De Lor, at JNIarly, for drawing light- 
ning from the clouds. This engaged the public attention 
every where. M. De Lor, who had an apparatus for experi- 
mental philosophy, and lectured in that branch of science, 
undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia experi- 
ments, and after they were performed before the king and 
court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not 
swell this narrative with an account of that capital experi- 



THELIGHTNINGROD. 63 



ment, nor of the infinite pleasure I received in the success of a 
similar one I made soon after, with a kite, at Philadelphia." 

He afterwards had an insulated rod constructed to draw 
the lightning into his house, with a bell attached, in order to 
inform him when the rod was affected by electricity. By 
means of this apparatus he was enabled to collect a consid- 
erable quantity of electric fluid, on which to experiment at 
his leisure. 

The theory of Franklin being thus determined by experi- 
ment, its paternity became a matter of serious discussion. 
It was shown that Gray and Nolet had both dwelt on this 
subject as something which might hereafter be realized, but 
with all the acuteness envy was enabled to enlist on its side, 
no one could show that beyond the most ideal surmises float- 
ing loosely through the minds of these great philosophers, 
the identity of lightning and electricity^had been gravely en- 
tertained, or a single step made to elucidate its phenomena, 
before the appearance of Franklin's letters. 

From two of the discoveries made by^ Franklin, viz : the 
superior power of pointed bodies to attract electricity, and 
the identity between lightning and electricity, he sought to 
establish an invention whose advantages to the human race 
can scarcely be estimated. This was, the protection of build- 
ings from the effects of lightning, by placing above them a 
pointed metallic conductor, terminating in the earth. This 
metallic rod being the best as well as the most ready conduc- 
tor, the lightning would necessarily traverse it, and thus pre- 
serve the building harmless from its effects. 

He entertained the opinion that in every stroke of light- 
ning, the electrical current moved to restore an equilibrium 



64 FRANKLIN 



between the cloud and the earth, selected its own passage by 
means of those things which were the readiest conductors, as 
damp walls, metals, &c., and would go considerably out of its 
way to seek the assistance of one of these conductors. Metal 
rods being the best conductors if of sufficient thickness, and 
extending from the highest part of an edifice to the ground, 
would afford the most complete immunity to the building by 
restoring the equilibrium so fast as to prevent a stroke, or if 
it did occur, it Avould be conducted by the rod from its point 
to the earth. 

He found that the gilding on a book, consistino; of the finest 

DO ' O 

fiUetting of gold, was sufficient to draw off the discharge 
from five highly charged large Ley den jars, and he therefore 
supposed that a wire a quarter of an inch in diameter, which 
contained about five thousand times as much metal as his gold 
line, would protect any building, but that a rod half an inch 
in diameter conducting four times as much as one of one- 
fourth of an inch, would prevent the possibility of any dan- 
gerous contingencies. He farther showed, that although the 
rod might be destroyed by the intensity of the electric shock, 
so as to render it useless thenceforth, it would nevertheless, 
conduct off the electric current for the time with perfect 
safety. 

We leave Franklin to relate the manner in Avhich the let- 
ters containing these important discoveries were at first re- 
ceived in England. " Collinson got them read in the Royal 
Society, Avhere they were not at first thought worth so much 
notice as to be printed in their transactions. One paper 
which I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley on the sameness of light- 
ning and electricity, I sent to Mr. Mitchel, an acquaintance 



ELECTRICALLETTERS. 65 



of mine, and one of the members also of the Society, who 
wrote me word that it had been read, but was laughed at by 
the connoisseurs. The papers, however, being shown to Dr. 
Fothergill, he thought them of too much value to be stifled, 
and advised the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave 
them to Cave for publication in his Gentleman's Magazine, 
but he chose to print them separately, in a pamphlet, and Dr. 
Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave it seems, judged rightly 
for his profession, for by the additions that arrived afterwards, 
they were swelled up to a quarto volume, which has had five 
editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money." 

" It was, however, some time before these papers were ta- 
ken much notice of in England. A copy of them happening 
to fall into the hands of the Count de BufFon. a philosopher 
of deservedly great reputation in France, and indeed all over 
Europe, he prevailed with JNI. Duborg to translate them into 
French, and they were printed at Paris. The publication 
offended the Abbe Nolet, preceptor in Natural Philosophy to 
the royal family, and an able experimenter, who had formed 
and published a theory of electricity which then had the gen- 
eral vogue. He could not at first believe that such a work 
came from America, and said it must have been fabri- 
cated hy his enemies at Paris, to oppose his system. After- 
wards, having been assured that there really existed such a 
person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he doubted, he 
wrote and published a volume of letters, chiefly addressed to 
me, defending his theory and denying the verity of my experi- 
ments, and of the positions deduced from them, 

"I once proposed answering the Abbe, and actually began 
the ansAver ; but on consideration that my writings contained 
9 



66 FRANKLIN. 

a description of experiments which any one miglit repeat and 
verify, and if not to be verified, could not be defended ; or of 
observations offered as conjectures, and not delivered dogmati- 
cally, therefore not laying me under any obligations to defend 
them ; and reflecting that a dispute between two persons, 
written in different languages, might be lengthened greatly 
by mistranslations, and thence misconceptions of one another's 
meaning, (much of one of the Abbe's letters being founded on 
an error in translation,) I concluded to let the papers shift for 
themselves, believing it was better to spend what time I could 
spare from public business in making new experiments than 
in disputing about those already made, I therefore never an- 
swered M. Nolet. And the event gave me no cause to repent 
my silence ; for my friend M. Le Roy, of the Royal Academy 
of Sciences, took up my cause, and refuted him. My book 
was translated into the Italian, German, and Latin languages, 
and the doctrine it contained was, by degrees, generally 
adopted by the philosophers of Europe, in preference to that 
of the Abbe : so that he lived to see himself the last of his 
sect, except Monsieur B -, of Paris, his eleve and imme- 
diate disciple." 

It would appear that the Fellows of the Royal Society were 
doubtful about receiving a new doctrine in science from such 
a questionable source as America, until it had been endorsed 
by the continental philosophers. "Dr. Wright," Franklin 
adds, " an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a friend, 
who was of the Royal Society, an account of the high esteem 
my experiments were in among the learned abroad, and of 
their wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in 
England. The Society, on this, resumed the consideration of 



DR. WATSON'S REPORT. 67 



the letters that had been read to them, and the celebrated 
Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, and of all I 
had afterwards sent to England on the subject, which he ac- 
companied with some praise of the writer. This summary 
was printed in their Transactiojis, and some members of the 
Society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. 
Canton, having verified the experiment of procuring light- 
ning from the clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainted them 
with the success, they soon made me more than amends for 
the slight with which they had before treated me. Without 
my having made any application for that honor, they chose 
me a member, and voted that I should be excused the cus- 
tomary payments, which would have amounted to twenty-five 
guineas, and ever since given me their Transactions gratis. 
They also presented me Avith the gold medal of Sir Godfrey 
Copley, for the year 1753, the delivery of which was accom- 
panied by a very handsome speech of the president, Lord 
Macclesfield, wherein I Avas highly honored." 

Notwithstanding the fascination of these pursuits in jihilos- 
ophy — which, he says in a letter to Collinson, so totally en- 
grossed his time and attention in making experiments and 
repeating them to his friends and acquaintances, who, from 
the novelty of the thing, came in crowds to see them, that he 
had but little leisure for any thing else — he was far from 
losing sight of the interests of the colony which had elected 
him a member of its Assembly. 

While in the midst of his electrical experiments, and soon 
after his letters on electricity began to excite a profound im- 
pression in Europe, he was nominated by Governor Hamilton, 
cue of four commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania, to 



68 FRANKLIN. [1754, 

meet commissioners from the other colonies, in a congress to 
be convened at Albany, by order of the Lords of Trade, to 
consult as to the means necessary for their mutual protection, 
in an apprehended rupture with France. 

The necessity for this mutual conference for joint protec- 
tion, suggested to Franklin's mind, the advantage of an union 
of all the colonies under one general government, which 
should be endowed with certain powers for defence, and other 
purposes of general utility. Franklin prepared an outline of 
a plan of union, on his way to Albany, where he found others 
entertaining the same sentiments, and the delegation from 
Massachusetts actually instructed to vote in favor of it. 

The convention was held on the 19th of June, 1754, and 
consisted of twenty-five members, all of whom were in at- 
tendance. On the 24th of June, " a motion was made, that 
the commissioners deliver their opinion whether a union of 
all the colonies is not at present absolutely necessary for their 
security and defence." This motion w^as decided by a unani- 
mous vote in the affirmative. Another motion was then 
made, that a committee be appointed to digest plans for this 
purpose. After the presentation of several plans, that of 
Franklin's was reported by the committee, and after a 
debate of twelve days upon it, was adopted, with the proviso 
that an act of Parliament was necessary to give it validity. 

The assemblies invariably opposed it, and even that of 
Pennsylvania, taking advantage of Franklin's absence, ex- 
pressed its disapprobation of the scheme to his " no small 
mortification." Nor did it meet with a better fate with the 
Board of Trade, for it was never recommended to the crown 
for action. This plan of union devised by the far sighted 



Mt. 48.] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 69 

philosopher, furnishes us with the first dim shadow of that 
under which we have attained to so great a degree of pros- 
perity, and although he could not at that period, have contem- 
plated a separation from the mother country, yet his political 
sagacity enabled him to point out in advance, the only mode 
in which the scattered colonies of North America could hope 
to maintain their independence, or attain an elevated position 
in the scale of nations. 

The anticipated rupture having actually occurred, the 
English government, not willing to allow their colonies to 
take upon themselves their mutual defence, sent General 
Braddock, with two regiments of English troops to protect 
them. The General landed at Alexandria, and continued his 
march to Fredericktown, Maryland, about forty miles distant, 
and then a frontier town, where he halted, to obtain infor- 
mation of the country, and wagons to transport his provisions, 
ammunition, &c. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, fearing 
that some difficulties might arise between him and the differ- 
ent Governors, requested Franklin, in his capacity of Post- 
master General, to wait upon General Braddock, and advise 
with him as to the best mode of conducting the war with 
certainty and despatch. He found the General under great 
misapprehensions as to the adverse conduct of the Legisla- 
tures, which he took care to remove, as well as in great em- 
barrassment for the want of the necessary means for trans- 
portation. Franklin expressed his regret that he had not 
landed in Pennsylvania, where wagons were abundant, and 
finally agreed to procure him one hundred and fifty from that 
colony. 

He was enabled to procure the requisite number in about 



70 FRANKLIN. [1755. 

two weeks, which together with two hundred and tifty bag- 
gage horses, he sent on their way to the camp. For the pur- 
pose of defraying the expenses of these wagons, he had re- 
ceived about eight hundred pounds from General Braddock, 
but finding this sum insufficient, he advanced an additional 
two hundred pounds out of his own purse, towards the pay- 
ment of the wagons, and as the General was unknown to the 
wagoners, he became personally liable for the faithful per- 
formance of the contract on the part of the English General. 

The unfortunate result of this expedition is well known. 
Franklin says, " the General was, I think, a brave man, and 
might probably have made a figure as a good officer, in some 
European war. But he had too much self confidence, too 
high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too 
mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George Crog- 
han, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march, with 
one hundred of these people, who might have been of great 
use to his army as guides and scouts, if he had treated them 
kindly, but he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually 
left him." This defeat first shook the faith of the inhabitants 
of the colonies in the invulnerability of British soldiery. 
They moreover, felt exceedingly indignant at the conduct of 
the troops, which had been any thing but creditable to them- 
selves or their service, their whole path through the colonies 
being marked by a system of plunder and insult, unbecoming 
conquerors, much less allies and protectors. 

The colonists had a sufficient lesson in the indignity suf- 
fered at their hands, as well as the defeat of Braddock's 
army, to look with great suspicion upon the protection af- 
forded to them by the mother country, and were very ready 



iEr. 49.] COMMISSIONED AS COLONEL. 71 

to join in a militia scheme proposed by Franklin soon after, 
in the Assembly of Pennsylvania, for their self defence. 
Franklin wrote a dialogue in its favor, which he supposes 
was of great service in making it popular. He was placed in 
commission as Colonel of his newly organized force, by the 
Governor, who supplied him with blank commissions to en- 
able him to select his inferior officers at his own discretion. 

The Indians on the frontier having become very trouble- 
some by committing depredations and destroying life, Frank- 
lin was prevailed upon by the Governor, to march to the as- 
sistance of the frontier settlers, and erect such fortifications 
as were necessary to secure them from the further encroach- 
ments of their savage neighbors. He had hardly erected three 
rude forts, before he was recalled by the Governor, seconded 
by many of his friends, to attend a session of the Legislature, 
where his presence was deemed of the greatest importance. 

The private relations subsisting betwixt Franklin and Gov- 
ernor Morris, had always been of the most friendly character, 
their public of the most belligerant kind. They first met at 
New York, when Franklin was on his way to Boston, and 
Governor Morris recently arrived from England, was about 
to proceed to Philadelphia, to supersede Governor Hamilton, 
who worn out with altercations betwixt the Assembly and 
himself, had tendered the resignation of his post to the Pro- 
prietaries. On his asking Franklin if he would have an un- 
comfortable administration, he told him, that he might have 
a very comfortable one if he would avoid disputes with the 
Assembly. "How can you," replied the Governor, laugh- 
ingly " advise me to avoid disputes, when you know I love 
them so dearly ? but for your sake, I promise that I will." 



72 FRANKLIN. 



[1756. 



His disjiutatious temperament, however, got the better of 
his good resolve, and long before Franklin returned from his 
northern tour, he had embroiled himself into angry conten- 
tions with the Assembly, in which Franklin soon became a 
participant, from his superior ability over the other members 
of the Assembly to write well. " Our answers," says Frank- 
lin, "as well as his messages, were often tart, and sometimes 
indecently abusive, and as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, 
one might have imagined that when we met we could hardly 
avoid cutting throats. But he was so good natured a man 
that no personal difference between him and me was occa- 
sioned by the contest, and we often dined together." 

This continual warfare between the Governor and the 
House was kept up by that want of identity of interest be- 
twixt the Proprietaries and the inhabitants of the colony, 
which finally terminated so disastrously for the Proprietary 
Governments, and so beneficially for the residents of the 
colonies. The great source of disputation was the raising of 
revenue by taxation, in which the Proprietaries instructed the 
Governor to object to any laAV that did not exclude the large 
possessions held under this tenure, from any portion of the 
burden of taxation. The inhabitants thought this oppressive, 
in the highest degree, and did not hesitate through their rep- 
resentatives in the Assembly, to declaim loudly against it. 

Franklin incurred no small share of the displeasure of the 
Proprietary on occount of the part he took in the matter, and 
he was looked upon by that functionary as the only personage 
by whose talents the Assembly could hope to maintain suc- 
cessfully, a hostility to him, and his views of the exemption 
of his immense possessions from taxation. An event of trivial 



iEx. 50.] DISPUTE WITH THE GOVERNOR. 73 

importance soon occurred, which the Proprietor took the ad- 
vantage to represent to the injury of Franklin. A number 
of his officers, during his Colonelship, took the opportunity 
of a short visit he was about to pay to Virginia, to bestow a 
little military honor upon him, by escorting him in full uni- 
form, out of town. As this was the first time that this dis- 
tinction had been bestowed upon any individual in the colony, 
the Proprietor took occasion to represent it to the Government 
at home, and accused Franklin of being "the great obstacle 
to the king's service," preventing by his influence, the pas- 
sage of such bills as were necessary to raise money, and in- 
stanced the parade with his officers, " as a proof of his inten- 
tion to take the government of the Province out of his hands 
by force." He also requested, but without effecting his pur- 
pose. Sir Evered Fawkener, to remove Franklin from his 
office of Postmaster General. The Government thought it 
necessary however, to bestow on him an admonition, not 
to let the thing occur again. 

This warfare betwixt the Proprietaries and people, never 
for an instant marred the personal friendly relations subsist- 
ing between the Governor and Franklin. "I have sometimes 
since thought," remarks Franklin, "that his little or no re- 
sentment against me, for the answers it was known I drew 
up to his messages, might be the effect of professional habit, 
and that being bred a lawyer, he might consider us both as 
merely advocates for contending clients in a suit ; he for the 
Proprietaries, and I for the Assembly. He would, therefore, 
sometimes call in a friendly way to advise with me on diffi- 
cult points, and sometimes, though not often, take my advice." 
10 



74 FRANKLIN. [1757. 

Governor Morris, like his predecessor, at last became tired 
with the never ending altercations between the Assembly and 
himself, and resigned his post. His place was tilled by Cap- 
tain Denny, who brought over with him the Copley medal, 
presented by the Royal Society to Franklin, which he gave 
to him at a public dinner, prepared for him by the city, on the 
occasion of his induction into the Gubernatorial post. 

Towards Franklin personally, he professed the greatest 
esteem, and their social relations were always friendly, but 
he unfortunately brought over instructions to insist upon the 
same distinction in proprietary property in regard to taxation, 
which had been the source of contention between the As- 
sembly and the former Governors, and soon found himself in 
the same unfortunate predicament with his predecessors. 

The Assembly, at last, worn out with this long continued 
obstinacy on the part of the proprietors, determined to repre- 
sent their case, by petitions, to the king, and appointed Frank- 
lin as their agent, to proceed to London, and attend to the in- 
terests of the people of the colony. He had accordingly 
provided himself with the necessary stores, agreed for his 
passage, and was on the eve of embarking, when Lord Lou- 
don arrived at Philadelphia, clothed, as he said, with fuU in- 
structions to effect a compromise betwixt the Assembly and 
the Proprietors, and asked Franklin to delay his journey for a 
short period, in order to see whether an arrangement con- 
formable to the wishes of both parties might not be entered 
into. Franklin yielded to his request, and argued the case 
before him on the part of the Assembly, Gov. Denny rep- 
resenting the Proprietors. Nothing, however, grew out of 
this interview, and Franklin prepared to resume his journey, 



iEx. 51.] REVISITS LONDON. 75 

but the ship in which he had secured his passage had al- 
ready sailed, with all his sto'-es on board, leaving him to supply 
himself with others, and procure his passage as he best could. 
This latter. Lord Loudon promised speedily to provide, and 
as the time for despatching the packet-ships was at his dis- 
posal, he assured Franklin that one should set out on the fol- 
lowing Monday — the Saturday previous being fixed on as the 
time of her departure. Franklin arrived at New York on 
Monday about noon, and as the weather was fair for sailing, 
he feared he had arrived too late. This was about the be- 
ginning of April, but owing to the delays interposed by his 
Lordship, he did not sail before the end of the following June. 
The cause of this delay was to give Lord Loudon time to 
w^ite his letters and despatches, which although he was al- 
ways writing, were never ready. " And yet," Franklin hu- 
morously remarks, " whoever waited on him, found him al- 
ways at his desk, pen in hand, and concluded he must needs 
write abundantly." He happened to be one of those per- 
sonages, who was always ready to commence, and labored in- 
dustriously at any undertaking, but unfortunately was never 
able to complete what he had commenced. The messenger 
who was waiting in his ante-chamber day after day, for letters 
to take to Philadelphia at this time, remarked to Franklin, 
"that he was like St. George on the signs, always on horse- 
back, but never rides on." He however, at last, set sail, and 
arrived at London 27th July, 1757. He remained for a short 
time as the guest of his friend and correspondent Collinson, 
and finally established himself at Mrs. Stevenson's, near the 
Strand, where he continued to reside during his sojourn in 
the great metropolis. 



76 FRANKLIN. [1757. 

We cannot avoid contrasting Franklin's present entrance 
into London with that when as a poor and friendless printer 
boy, thrown unexpectedly upon his own resources in a great 
city, he was fain to take lodgings in Little Britain, for himself 
and his friend Ralph, poorer and more friendless than him- 
self, at three shillings and sixpence a week. Upon this pre- 
sent visit his reputation as a profound philosopher and distin- 
guished statesman had gone before him. His letters on elec- 
tricity, printed several years before by Cave, and afterwards 
often republished in the English and other languages, had 
rendered his name as familiar as that of Newton's. His po- 
litical essays were likewise greatly admired for the profundity 
of thought they displayed, as well as the chaste language in 
which they were clothed. But besides these high claims to 
public attention, he now appeared as the representative of 
an important colony, clothed with the delegated functions of 
a legislative assembly, and charged with the responsible duty 
of representing their grievances to the king. 

He was received by the Royal Society, of which he was 
already a member, with marks of especial attention ; and the 
principal learned men, both of England and France, hastened 
to pay him that sort of consideration due to his great attain- 
ments and exalted position in the learned world. Among 
these he found most congeniality, for although his attention 
had lately been much abstracted from scientific investigations 
by the political relations he sustained to the government, yet 
he still retained his fondness for them, intermingled, no 
doubt, by no small share of gratified pride at the fortunate 
results of his own investigations and experiments. 

All of his plans, either of advantage to the colony, which 



^T. 51.] PROPRIETARY DIFFICULTIES. 77 

occupied his first consideration, or of pleasure for himself, 
were suddenly arrested by the supervention of an attack of 
intermittent fever, which confined him to his room for nearly 
two months, in which he was attended by Dr. Fothergill. It 
appears to have been quite obstinate, returning on every 
slight occasion, but was finally cured by an attack of vomit- 
ing and purging, nature kindly brought to his relief, after 
repeated ineffectual trials to effect the same, and the use of 
large and unpalatable doses of Peruvian bark, then in use, but 
since superseded by the more elegant and efficient concen- 
tration of its active properties in quinine. 

In the original charter obtained by William Penn, while he 
took good care to secure his own rights as proprietor, he guar- 
anteed to those who might settle in the colony many valuable 
political privileges, among which were the constitution of a 
House of Assembly, from which the laws regulating the co- 
lony should originate, religious toleration, and a protection to 
person and property upon the broad English interpretation of 
these terms. 

He had, however, with an eye to his own peculiar interests 
in retaining a right to an immense domain within its territory, 
set up certain rights, not granted to others, which produced a 
continued conflict betwixt the proprietaries and the inhabit- 
ants, during the life time of William Penn, but were greatly 
increased on the accession of his sons, Thomas and Richard 
Penn, to his immunities and estates. One of the most pro- 
lific sources of discord was, as we have already had occasion 
to state, the exemption of the large possessions of the pro- 
prietaries from their share in the burden of taxation. 

To the Assembly belonged the power of originating laws, 



78 FRANKLIN. [1758 

but they required the sanction of the Governor, who was the 
agent of the proprietaries, to give them validity. This assent 
was frequently refused on account of the stringent instruc- 
tions the governors were sent out with, and hence the dissen- 
sions we have observed between the Assembly and the Gov- 
ernor during the entire period Franklin was a member of the 
legislative body. Franklin, in this contention, was always 
the steadfast champion of the Assembly and the opposer of 
the high pretensions of the proprietaries, and, therefore, was 
deemed the most suitable person to represent the griev- 
ances of the colony to the crown. 

Before, however, resorting to this step, he was first in- 
structed to appeal to the proprietaries to effect, if possible, an 
arrangement with them, in which, by mutual concessions, the 
two opposing parties might settle upon terms acceptable to 
both. He found them in no disposition to enter into such an 
arrangement, and appealed to the government through the 
board of trade. Unfortunately for the success of his mission, 
the public attention was too keenly directed to the wars then 
agitating the continent, to allow it to rest on the wants or in- 
terests of a distant colony, whose importance was but little 
felt by the English Government. The only measure he could 
prudently adopt in this uncertain posture of affairs, was to 
employ suitable counsel to appear before the board of trade 
whenever it should suit their convenience, to take the case 
into consideration, and quietly await the issue. 

In the meantime, taking advantage of this moment of lei- 
sure, he sought to employ it by paying a visit to the site of 
his humble, j'-et cherished ancestral halls, the details of which 
are given in that portion of the autobiography, already quoted, 



JEt. 52.] THE HISTORICAL REVIEW. 79 

touching upon the genealogy of his family. In this journey 
he had the kindness of heart to seek out every person, how- 
ever humble, who had the slightest affinity by blood to him- 
self, and the magnanimity to acknowledge the humbleness of 
these relationships. It is likewise told of him, that he ren- 
dered more substantial aid to those who stood in need of such 
services, which he has not seen proper to record. 

It was thought by the counsel a very important matter to 
enlist public opinion on the side of the colonists, and to de- 
fend them from the abuse and false aspersion heaped upon 
them with no unsparing hand by those who were either per- 
sonally interested, or secondarily so through the proprietaries. 
For the purpose of effecting this object, " The Historical Review 
of Pennsylvania,'" was published in the early part of the year 
1759, and from the style and ability it displayed, was imme- 
diately attributed to Franklin, who neither denied nor ac- 
knowledged publicly its authorship, which long remained a 
subject of doubt, although generally conceded to Franklin. 

A letter from Franklin to Hume, recently brought to light 
through the indefatigable researches of Mr. Sparks, denies 
most pointedly the authorship, and puts that question at rest, 
so far as he is concerned. Ralph, who had now won consid- 
erable reputation as a political writer, and had obtained a 
pension of three hundred pounds a year, and whom Franklin 
speaks of in a letter to his wife, as a person "well respected 
by people of value," was charged with the authorship; but 
whoever the original writer, it is very certain that it was pre- 
pared at the suggestion of, and supervised and amended by 
Franklin. 

About the time of its publication, the degree of Doctor of 



80 FRANKLIN. [1760. 

Laws was conferred upon him by the University of St. An- 
drews, in Scotland. The presentation of this degree, was 
accompanied by an urgent invitation to visit Scotland, he 
did not feel himself at liberty to decline. On this visit, 
which took place during the ensuing summer, he was for 
some time a guest of Lord Karnes, and became acquainted 
with most of the eminent men of Scotland, among whom 
were the celebrated historians, Robertson, Hume, and Wat- 
son. In whatever direction he travelled, he received marks 
of the most unbounded attention, not the least flattering 
among Avhich, were the freedom of the cities of St. Andrews 
and Edinburgh. In alluding to this visit afterwards in a letter 
to Lord Karnes, he adds, " On the whole, I must say, I think 
the time we spent there was six weeks of the derisest happi- 
ness I have met with in any part of my life." 

An event occurred in the following year, which brought 
the affairs of the colony before the Board of Trade in rather 
an unexpected manner. Governor Denny, either from con- 
viction that the grounds of the proprietaries were unjust to the 
colonists, or worn out by long repeated and harassing oppo- 
sition, at last yielded his assent to a bill for raising one hun- 
dred thousand pounds by taxation, in which the estates of the 
proprietaries were placed on the same footing with those of 
the colonists. This law, with several others, was warmly 
opposed by the proprietaries, who used every exertion in their 
power to prevent the sanction by the crown, necessary to give 
them validity. The case was argued at great length before 
the Board of Trade, by able counsel employed on both sides, 
and was decided in June, 1760, in favor of tlie law taxing the 
proprietary estates, giving to the Governor, howeA'er, in com- 



JEt. 54:.] ELECTRICITY IN PALSY. 81 

mon with the Assembly, a voice in the disposition of the 
money raised under it. 

The historical review, which had been quietly effecting its 
purpose on public sentiment, and the ready arguments Frank- 
lin's superior information enabled him to put into the mouths 
of the Assembly's counsel, had a very great influence in ef- 
fecting this decision. 

Although Franklin's attention was mainly directed to the 
political affairs of the colony, for whose benefit he had visited 
England, yet he found time occasionally to prosecute his sci- 
entific investigations, and correspond on such subjects with 
his scientific friends. At an early period of his residence in 
England, he addressed a letter by his request, to Sir John 
Pringle, a surgeon of great eminence, and afterwards Presi- 
dent of the Royal Society, on the effects of electricity in 
paralysis. As great cures are professed to have been lately 
performed by electricity and electro-magnetism, the result of 
his observations may not be uninteresting. "The first thing 
I observed," writes he, " was an immediate greater sensible 
warmth in the lame limbs that had received the stroke than in 
the others, and the next morning the patients usually related 
that they had in the niglit felt a jDrickling sensation in the flesh 
of the paralytic limbs ; and would sometimes show a number 
of small red spots, which they supposed were occasioned by 
these prickings. The limbs, too, were found more capable of 
voluntary motion, and seemed to receive strength. A man 
for instance, who could not the first day lift the lame hand 
from off his knee, would, the next day, raise it four or five 
inches, the third, higher, and on the fifth day, was able with 
a feeble languid motion, to take off his hat. These appear- 
11 



82 FRANKLIN. 

ances gave great spirits to the patients, and made them hope 
a perfect cure : but I do not remember that I ever saw any 
amendment after the fifth day, which the patient perceiving, 
and finding the shocks pretty severe, they became discouraged, 
went home, and in a short time relapsed, so that I never 
knew any advantage from electricity in palsies, that was 
permanent." We apprehend that these cautious and candid 
observations of Franklin will be confirmed by the experience 
of every intelligent practitioner of medicine, who has had 
occasion to witness the effects of electricity in nervous 
diseases. 

He likewise made some experiments on the electrical pe- 
culiarities of the tourmalin, which he communicated in a 
letter to Dr. William Heberdeen, a distinguished physician, 
well known by his elegant medical commentaries. The two 
specimens of this fossil subjected by Franklin to experiment, 
were the property of Dr. Heberdeen, the largest of which was 
presented by him to Franklin. 

Before detailing the results of Franklin's experiments, it 
may be proper to state that the tourmalin is a silicious fossil, 
occurring like schorl, to which it is closely allied, in primi- 
tive rocks, but is distinguished from it by its colors, and its 
greater lustre, the schorl being black, while the tourmalin is 
found of various dark shades of brown, red, green and blue, 
and of a very brilliant lustre. Some of these are exceedingly 
beautiful, and on that account, are used in ornamental w^ork, 
as gems. Its chrystals possess all shades of transparency, 
from nearly opaque to the most perfect clearness : its fracture 
is conchoidal, its hardness greater than that of quartz, an- 
other silicious fossil, and its specific gravity 3.5. It is more 



THETOURMALIN. 83 



commonly found in the island of Ceylon, than elsewhere, but 
is likewise frequently met with in the East Indies, and occa- 
sionally in other portions of the globe. Its components, ac- 
cording to Vauquelin, are silex 40, argil 39, lime 5.84, oxide 
of iron 12.5, oxide of manganese 2. 

It was first brought to Europe by some Dutch navigators 
from the island of Ceylon, who called it aschentrikker, from 
its power of attracting ashes when thrown into the fire, but 
it appears to have been known as far back as the time of 
Theophrastus, who describes it under the name of lyncitrium. 
The first detailed account made to a scientific body of its 
properties was by M. Lemery, in 1717, who exhibited a tour- 
malin to the Royal Academy of Siences at Paris, and de- 
scribed some of its electrical properties. 

jEpinus procured two of these stones, with which he 
made a variety of experiments, published in the history of 
the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres, at Berlin, in 
1756, in which he states that the tourmalin is always en- 
dowed with a positive and negative electricity at the same 
moment, these different states being confined to opposite sides 
of the fossil. 

He could produce these opposite states of electricity most 
vividly, by plunging the stone in hot water. If one side of 
the stone was heated more than the other, each side acquired 
an electricity opposite to that which was natural to it, but re- 
p-ained its natural state when left to itself. 

If the tourmalin were so placed that one of its sides was in 
contact with a conductor connected with the earth, and then 
rubbed, the side excited by friction would be positive, and 



84 FRANKLIN. 



the other negative, but if no conductor was used, both sides 
became positive. 

These experiments were afterwards repeated by Dr. Wil- 
son, in Eiigland, with a more complete ai)paratus than that 
used by Jilpinus, confirming his experiments in the main, but 
concluding, in opposition to the opinion expressed by him, 
that when the sides of the tourmalin were unequally heated, 
the species of electricity displayed was that of the hottest 
side ; thus, if the negative side was heated, the whole stone 
became negative, and vice versa. 

Mr. Canton in a paper coinnuuiicated to tlie Royal Society 
in December, 1759, developed the important principle that 
the tourmalin emits and absorbs electric lluid in a direct 
ratio to tlie increase or diminution of its heat. 

He likewise divided a tourmalin into three parts, taking 
one pai't from the positive and one from the negative end. 
When these pieces were heated, he found on cooling, that 
the outer side of the end of the positive part of the stone 
was positive, and that the negative side was negativelj' elec- 
tiufied, whilst the middle portion was electrified one way or the 
other, just as if it had never been divided. 

Franklin attempts to account for the different results ob- 
tained by different experiments, by supposing that tlie stones 
were improperly cut by the lapidaries, and adds, " I have had 
tlie large one new cut, so as to make botli sides alike, and 
find the change of form has produced no change in power, 
but the properties remain tlie same as I found them before. 
It is now set in a ring, in sucli a manner as to turn on an 
axis, that I may conveniently, in making experiments, come 
at both sides of the stone. The little rim of gold it is set in, 



CANADA PAMPHLET. 85 



has made no alteration in its effects. The warmth of my 
finger, when I wear it, is sulHcient to give it some degree of 
electricity, so that it is always ready to attract light bodies. 

" The following experiments have satisfied me that M. iEpi- 
nus's account of the positive and negative states of the op- 
posite sides of the heated tourmalin, is well founded. 

" I lieated the large stone in boiling water. As soon as it 
was dry, I brought it near a very small cork ball, that was 
suspended by a silk thread. The ball was attracted by one 
face of the stone, which I call A., and then repelled. 

" The ball in that state was also repelled by the positively 
charged wire of a vial, and atti-acted by the other side of the 
stone, B. 

" The stone being fresh heated, and the side B. brouglit 
near the ball, it was first attracted and presently after, re- 
pelled by that side. In this second state it was repelled by 
the negatively charged wire of a vial. 

" Therefore, if the principles now generally received, re- 
lating to positive and negative electricity, are true, tlie side 
A. of the large stone, where the stone is heated in water, is 
in a positive state of electricity, and the side B. in a negative 
state." 

It has been alleged that Franklin was somewhat instru- 
mental in changing the theatre of the war betwixt England 
and France, to the French possessions, and that the taking of 
Quebec b}^ Wolf, and the final reduction of Canada, grew 
out of measures strenuously advocated by hrm before the 
heads of the government in London, in an unofficial manner. 
Whether this be true or not, his pamphlet on the subject of 
retaining Canada, at the close of that war, as a British pro- 



86 FRANKLIN. [1762. 

vince, undoubtedly, did more to effect that purpose, than any 
of the numerous publications made in its behalf at the time. 

In a letter written to Lord Karnes, on the subject of this 
annexation, to the British possessions in America, he makes 
this far-sighted and statesman-like observation, " I have long 
been of opinion that the foundations of the future grandeur 
and stability of the British empire lie in America, and though 
like other foundations, they are low and little now, they are, 
nevertheless, broad and strong enough to support the greatest 
political structure that human wisdom ever yet erected. I 
am therefore by no means, for restoring Canada. If we keep 
it, all the country from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, will, 
in another century, be filled with British people ; Britain itself, 
will become vastly more populous, by the immense increase 
of its commerce ; the Atlantic sea will be covered with your 
trading ships ; and your naval power thence continually in- 
creasing, will extend your influence round the whole globe, 
and awe the world." 

Little did Franklin imagine while depicting the future pros- 
perity of that empire, whose boast now is that the sun never 
sits upon its possessions, that he was unconsciously fashion- 
ing the first stone in the edifice, since grown into such goodly 
proportions in our national confederation. A separate gov- 
ernment at that time had never entered Franklin's mind, and 
long after, when conversing with Pitt, on the subject of a 
revolt, he "assured him, that having more than once travelled 
almost from one end of the continent to the other, and kept a 
variety of company, eating, drinking, and conversing with 
them freely, he never had heard in any conversation from 
any person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for 



iEx. 56.] DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND. 87 

a separation, or hint that such a thing would be advantageous 
to America." 

The business which brought him to London having been 
terminated, he now began to think seriously of returning to 
his native land. He had not remained thus long in England 
without securing to himself many warm friends, who looked 
upon his departure with great regret, and endeavored by 
many flattering inducements to prevent his return. His af- 
fections, however, were centered in his home, in the rude 
colony of Pennsylvania, from which all the blandishments of 
the refined society of a great city and gay court could not 
wean him. He left England on the 17th of August, 1762, 
and arrived at Philadelphia on the first day of the following 
November, after an absence of upwards of five years. Im- 
mediately before his departure, the Universities of Edinburgh 
and Oxford conferred upon him separately the degree of Doc- 
tor of Laws, besides which he received very warm letters of 
regret from Hume, Lord Kames, Robertson, and a large 
number of other distinguished men, whose regard he had won 
by his exalted intellectual qualifications, united to great sim- 
plicity and gentleness of manner. His son, who had accom- 
panied him, likewise bore with him on his return, the com- 
mission of Governor of the colony of New Jersey. 

The services he had rendered abroad, not only to the colony 
of Pennsylvania, but to the American provinces in general, 
were warmly appreciated, and testified by a vote of thanks 
passed by the Legislature, and another granting him three 
thousand pounds for his expenses whilst engaged in its service. 

Notwithstanding the favorable construction put upon the 
law for raising revenue by the crown, the proprietaries by an 



88 FRANKLIN. ri764. 

ambiguity in its language, managed to obtain a very consider- 
able advantage in the rating of their taxable property. In 
the opinion given by the crown, it was stated "that the loca- 
ted uncultivated lands of the proprietaries shall not be as- 
sessed higher than the lowest rate at which any located 
uncultivated lands belonging to the inhabitants shall be 
assessed," which the Governor claimed as a right to tax tlie 
best lands of the proprietaries no higher than the most wortli- 
less of the inhabitants. 

Franklin, who had been elected to a seat in the Assembly 
prior to his return, warmly opposed this construction, and 
finding that the warfare betwixt the Governor and the Leo-is- 
lature waxed as warm as ever, was instrumental in getting up 
a petition for relieving the grievance in a summary mode, by 
soliciting the crown to interpose its authority, and dispense 
witli the proprietary Governor, as provided under the charter. 
To this petition three thousand signatures were attached, and 
after a warm and acrimonious debate, it passed the Assem- 
bly. On this occasion, the speaker, Mr. Norris, who had 
always been a warm advocate for the rights of the Assembly, 
and opposed to the claims of the proprietaries, fearing the 
apparent revolutiouary tendency of the resolutions, declined 
voting for them, and resigned his seat. Franklin was elected 
to fill his post as speaker, and in that capacity signed the re- 
solutions. Tlie question of levying a stamp duty on tlie colo- 
nics had excited public attention and called forth resolutions 
in opposition to the measure by the various colonial Legisla- 
tures, one of Avhich passed that of Pennsylvania. Tlie sign- 
ing of this was among the last of Franklin's acts as speaker. 
The party who favored the proprietary side of the question 



iEx. 58.1 FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 89 

was violently opposed to the measures taken by Franklin to 
procure redress, and anticipated from them nothing but evil. 
The strife had grown very warm in the Assembly, and was 
continued in the succeeding elections with so much zeal that 
Franklin lost his election by about twenty-five votes. He 
had been elected consecutively to the Assembly for fourteen 
years, without ever having solicited a vote, and in the con- 
test in which he lost his election he did not deviate from his 
usual custom : this gave his opponents, who were busy in 
influencing the minds of voters, a decided advantage over 
him. They now supposed their triumph complete, and that 
they had fairly rid themselves of an able and dangerous op- 
ponent. But it was of short duration, for the Assembly, on 
convening, finding a majority of two or three in favor of the 
resolutions, introduced one appointing Franklin an agent to 
lay their grievances before the king. 

The discussion which arose on this resolution, clearly 
showed that he had not been thus long in public life, without 
creating a large number of bitter opponents, w^ho seized this 
opportunity to express, in no measured terms, their disappro- 
bation of his private as well as his political sentiments. Nor 
were his friends less zealous in sustaining him, and after a 
protracted debate, marked by great malignity and unnecessary 
warmth on both sides, succeeded in obtaining the passage of 
the resolution by a small majority. When on the eve of em- 
barking on his new mission, he addressed a letter to his 
daughter, in which he thus alludes to these political feuds. 
" You know I have many enemies, all indeed, on the public's 
account, (for I cannot recollect that I have, in a private ca- 
pacity, given just cause of offence to any whatever,) yet they 
1^ 



yO FRANKLIN. 



[1764. 



are enemies and very bitter ones, and you must expect their 
iMiniity will extend, in some degree, to you, so that your 
slightest indiscretions will be magnified into crimes, in order 
the more sensibly (o wound and afilict me. It is therefore 
the more necessary for you to be extremely circumspect in 
all your behaviour, that no advautago may be given their 
malevolence." 

On tho 7th of NovtMubiM-, 1764, a few days after the pas- 
sage of the resolution, he left Philadelphia, accompanied by 
a large number of his personal friends, to embark at Chester, 
for England, where he arrived after a passage of about thirty 
days, and domesticated himself once more with his old friend, 
Mrs. Stevenson, in Craven street, London. 

We have stated, that one of the last acts performed by 
Franklin, as Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, was 
to sign the resolutions of that body condemning the Stamp 
Act, contemplated by the British government, as an unlawful 
infringement upon their privileges. The manner in which 
this subject came before tlie Assembly, is thus related by 
Franklin. "Some time in the winter of 17G3-4, JNIr. Crenville 
called together the agents of the several colonies, and told 
them tiuit he projioscd to draw a revenue from America, and 
to that end, his intention was to levy a stamji duty on tlie 
colonies, hy an act of Parliament, in the ensuing season, of 
which he thought it fit, that they should be immediately ac- 
quainted, that they might have time to consider, and if any 
other duty equally ])roductive would be more agreeable to 
them, they might let liini know it. The agents were there- 
fore directed to write this to their respective Assemblies, and 



.'Ex. 58.] PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT. 91 

communicate to him the answers they should receive ; the 
agents wrote accordingly." 

He was the bearer of the answer of tlie Pennsylvania As- 
sembly to the government, and Avas likewise instructed to 
use every exertion in his power to prevent the passage of the 
measure. Nor was the colony he represented alone in this 
protest, for the others with great unanimity of opinion, agreed 
that it was a groat infringement of llieir rights not only as 
colonists, but as Englishmen, the British constitution protect- 
ing them from taxation by a body in which they wore not 
represented. An opinion in which they were ably sustained 
by Pitt, as the leader of the opposition party in the House of 
Commons. 

All opposition however, was unavailing, and the govern- 
ment, with a determination to subdue the refractory spirit of 
the colonies, insisted upon its passage. It was passed ac- 
cordingly, and fashioned subsequent events betwixt the 
mother country and its American dependencies, in a manner 
but little anticipated by its projectors. Before this period it 
had been the universal custom to make a requisition on the 
colonies for such aid as government desired, stating the pur- 
pose for which it was required, and asking them to take it into 
consideration, clothed with respectful language, and express- 
ing the confidence placed by the government in the patriotism 
and affection of the colonies for the home government. These 
appeals had always been met ; but they were unwilling to 
grant by compulsion, what they would cheerfully have 
awarded to courtesy. This had been distinctly stated by 
Franklin in the House of Commons, if not to Lord Grenville, 
at least in his hearing. He thought whatever legal right Par- 



92 FRANKLIN. [1766. 

liament had to enact such a law, it was far more prudent in 
" a government exercising sovereignty over different kinds of 
people, to have some regard to prevailing and established 
opinions among the people to be governed, wherever such 
opinions might, in their effects, obstruct or promote public 
measures," than to attempt to rouse their angry passions by 
harsh and coercive means. 

The intense excitement and burst of indignant feeling that 
pervaded the American colonies on the receij:)! of the news 
of the passage of the stamp act, are too well known to be re- 
lated here. The British government clearly saw that it had 
gone too far, and now attempted to retrace a step which, if 
prosecuted, seemed fraught with imminent peril, and if 
retracted, to furnish an acknowledgment of their want of 
strength to carry it into effect. It was on the occasion of the 
attempt to repeal this act, that Franklin appeared before the 
House of Commons as a witness. He had never before oc- 
cupied so eventful a position, and in no one did he acquit 
himself with more consummate ability. His exalted rej)uta- 
tion, his frank and urbane manner, and his perfect acquain- 
tance with every thing relating to American interests, served 
to give the greatest weight to his testimony, which went far 
towards producing the repeal of the act so odious to his 
countrymen. 

But the flame of discord had been kindled, and although 
its smouldering fires were for a time kept under by the repeal 
of the stamp act, yet they were ever and anon stirred into a 
blaze by some indiscreet act on the part of the British gov- 
ernment, which with a sort of wounded pride, at the conces- 
sion it felt itself forced to make, was incessantly aiming to 



^T. 60.] MODE OF LIVING. 93 

abridge the right of the colonies and secure in other and more 
indirect modes, the right of taxation so strenuously resisted. 

He gives an account of his mode of living, as well as an 
insight into his pecuniary affairs at this period, in the annexed 
extract from a letter to his wife : 

" For my own part I live here as frugally as possible not to 
be destitute of the comforts of life, making no dinners for 
anybody and contenting myself with a single dish when I 
dine at home ; and yet such is the dearness of living here in 
every article, that my expenses amaze me. I see, too, by the 
sums you have received in my absence, that yours are very 
great ; and I am very sensible that your situation naturally 
brings you a great many visiters, which occasions an expense 
not easily to be avoided, especially when one has been long 
in the practice and habit of it. But when people's incomes 
are lessened, if they cannot proportionably lessen their out- 
goings, they must come to poverty. If we were young 
enough to begin business again, it might be another matter ; 
but I doubt we are past it, and business not well managed 
ruins one faster than no business. In short, with frugality 
and prudent care we may subsist decently on what we have, 
and leave it entire to our children ; but without such care we 
shall not be able to keep it together ; it will melt away like 
butter in the sunshine, and we may live long enough to feel 
the miserable consequences of our indiscretion." 

Taking advantage of the interval of quiet succeeding the 
repeal of the stamp-act, Franklin, accomj)anied by his friend 
Sir John Pringle, paid a visit to Paris, where he was received 
with marked attention by the ro^^al family, and the different 
learned societies of the French metropolis. His reputation, 



94 FRANKLIN. [1767. 

as a distinguished philosopher, and eminent diplomatist, had 
preceded him, and although he visited it for the first time, he 
found himself surrounded by warm friends and devoted ad- 
mirers. In a letter addressed to Miss Stevenson, descriptive 
of this visit, he gives the following account of his presentation 
at the French court: "We went to Versailles last Sunday, 
and had the honor of being presented to the King ; he spoke 
to both of us very graciously and very cheerfully, is a hand- 
some man, has a very lively look, and appears younger than 
he is. In the evening we were at the Grand Convert, where 
the family sup in public. The table was half a hollow square, 
the service gold. When either made a sign for drink, the 
word was given by one of the waiters ; A boire pour h Roi, or, 
A boire pour la Reine. Then two persons came from within, 
the one with wine and the other with water in carafes ; each 
drank a little glass of what he brought, and then put both the 
carafes with a glass on a salver, and then presented it. Their 
distance from each other was such, as that other chairs might 
have been placed between any two of them. An officer of 
the court brought us up through the crowd of spectators, and 
placed Sir John so as to stand between the Queen and Ma- 
dame Victoire. The King talked a good deal to Sir John, 
asking many questions about our royal family; and did me 
too the honor of taking some notice of me ; that is saying 
enough; for I would not have you think me so much pleased 
with this King and Queen, as to have a whit less regard than 
I used to have for ours. No Frenchman shall go beyond me 
in thinking my own King and Queen the very best in the 
world, and the most amiable." 

He was soon recalled to his post by the steps taken in Bos- 



Mr. 61.] THE FARMER'S LETTERS. 95 

ton against the revenue act, which they conceived to be as 
oppressive and unjust as the one recently repealed, and 
which they sought to evade by refusing to purchase the ar- 
ticles introduced into the country under it where it could pos- 
sibly be avoided. 

The passage of the revenue law called out the " Farmer's 
Letters," written by Mr. Dickinson, who had opposed Frank- 
lin's appointment as the agent of the colony. Franklin had 
these letters re-printed in England, with a preface of his own.. 
They urged with great ability the necessity for the refusal to 
purchase goods imported. Nor did Franklin hesitate to urge 
upon his friends at home, a strict compliance with their reso- 
lutions to interdict imported goods. " By persisting steadily 
in the measures you have so laudably entered into," writes he 
to a committee of Philadelphia merchants, " I hope you will, 
if backed by the general honest resolutions of the people to 
buy British goods of no others, but to manufacture for them- 
selves, or use colony manufactures only, be the means under 
God, of recovering and establishing the freedom of our country 
entire, and of handing it down complete to posterity." 

In addition to the affairs of Pennsylvania, he had been ap- 
pointed by the colonies of New Jersey, Georgia and Massa- 
chusetts, as agent to represent their interests at London. 
His position with the members of the cabinet was a very ex- 
alted one, and he was universally regarded by them as a per- 
son of profound ability and unwavering integrity. The friendly 
relations maintained by him with the higher functionaries of 
the government, gave rise to the belief that he was to receive 
a high official appointment, which we have reason to believe, 
he would have been nothing loth to accept, although he feared 



96 FRANKLIN. [1768. 

he was looked upon as " too much of an American," to be se- 
lected for any prominent position, by the home government, 
and indeed, had grounds to fear that he might not long retain 
his present official position of Postmaster General. 

We leave him, however, to speak of this subject for him- 
self, which he does in a very explicit manner, in the follow- 
ing letter to his son, written in June, 1768 : 

"I purpose now to take notice of that part, wherein you 
say it was reported at Philadelphia I was to be appointed to 
a certain office here, which my friends all wished, but you 
did not believe it for the reason I had mentioned. Instead of 
m}^ being appointed to a new otHce, there has been a motion 
made to deprive me of that I now hold, and, I believe, for the 
same reason, though that was not the reason given out, viz : 
my being too much of an American ; but, as it came from 
Lord Sandwich, our new Postmaster General, who is of the 
Bedford party, and a friend of Mr. Grenville, I have no 
doubt that the reason he gave out, viz : my non-residence, 
was only the pretence, and that the other was the true reason ; 
especially as it is the practice in many other instances, to 
allow the non-residence of American officers, who spend 
their salaries here, provided care is taken that the business 
be done by deputy or otherwise. 

" The first notice I had of this was from my fast friend 
Mr. Cooper, secretary of the treasury. He desired me, by a 
little note to call upon him there, which I did ; when he told 
me, that the Duke of Grafton had mentioned to him some 
discourse of Lord Sandwich's, as if the office sullered by my 
absence, and that it would be fit to appoint another, as I 
seemed constantly to reside in England ; that Mr. Todd, score- 



Mt. 62.] VIEWS OF OFFICE. 97 

tary of the post office, had also been with the Duke, talking 
to the same purpose, &c.; that the Duke had wished him 
(Mr. Cooper) to mention this to me, and to say to me, at the 
same time, that, though" my going to my post might remove 
the objection, yet, if I chose rather to reside in England, my 
merit was such in his opinion, as to entitle me to something 
better here, and it should not be his fault if I was not well 
provided for. I told Mr. Cooper, that, without having heard 
any exception had been taken to my residence here, I was 
really preparing to return home, and expected to be gone in a 
few weeks; that, however, I was extremely sensible of the 
Duke's goodness, in giving me this intimation, and very thank- 
ful for his favorable disposition towards me ; that, having 
lived long in England, and contracted a friendship and affec- 
tion for many persons here, it could not but be agreeable to 
me to remain among them some time longer, if not for the rest 
of my life ; and that there was no nobleman, to whom I could, 
from sincere respect for his great abilities and amiable qualities, 
so cordially attach myself, or to whom I should so willingly 
be obliged for the provision he mentioned, as to the Duke of 
Grafton, if his Grace should think I could, in any station 
where he might place me, be serviceable to him and to the 
public. 

" Mr. Cooper said, he was very glad to hear I was still will- 
ing to remain in England, as it agreed so perfectly with his 
inclinations to keep me here ; wished me to leave my name 
at the Duke of Grafton's as soon as possible, and to be at the 
treasury again the next board day. I accordingly called at the 
Duke's and left my card ; and when I went next to the trea- 
sury, his Grace not being there, Mr. Cooper carried me to 
13 



98 FRANKLIN. [1768. 

Lord North, chancellor of the exchequer, who said very obli- 
gingly, after talking of some American affairs, ' I am told by 
Mr. Cooper, that you are not unwilling to stay with us. I 
hope we shall find some way of making it worth your while.' 
I thanked his Lordship, and said I should stay with pleasure, 
if I could any ways be useful to government. He made me 
a compliment and I took my leave, Mr. Cooper carrying me 
away with him to his country-house at Richmond, to dine and 
stay all night." 

During the summer of 1768, Lord Clare was very unex- 
pectedly removed from the head of the board of trade to the 
treasury of Ireland, and Lord Hillsborough was entrusted 
with the affairs of the colonies as first commissioner, with the 
title of Secretary of State. "This change," Franklin writes 
to Mr. Galloway, " was very sudden and unexpected. My 
Lord Clare took me home from court to dine with him but 
two days before, saying he should be without other company, 
and wanted to talk with me on sundry American businesses. 
We had accordingly a good deal of conversation on our af- 
fairs, in which he seemed to interest himself with all the at- 
tention that could be supposed in a minister who expected to 
continue in the management of them. This was on Sunday, 
and on the Tuesday following he was removed. Whether 
my Lord Hillsborough's administration will be more stable 
than others have been for a long time, is quite uncertain, but 
as his inclinations are i-ather favorable towards us (so far as 
he thinks consistent with v/hat he supposes the unquestion- 
able rights of Britain,) I cannot but wish it may continue." 

But however auspicious to the welfare of the colonies 
Lord Hillsborough's appointment appeared to be, in the eyes 



Mt. 62.] LORD HILLSBOROUGH. 99 

of Franklin, it eventuated very unfavorably for them, and 
personally unpleasant to Franklin himself. The intercourse 
betwixt them was at first conducted with much courtesy on 
both sides. But Lord Hillsborough entertained opinions 
about the "unquestionable rights of Britain," very diflerent 
from those of the inhabitants of the colonies, or their As- 
semblies represented by Franklin. Irritated by their con- 
tinued opposition to the restraints imposed upon them by the 
government, and especially by their marked hostility to the 
revenue laws, and the officers appointed to put them into exe- 
cution, he sought to subdue their refractory spirit by a rigid 
execution of the late acts of Parliament, and believing that 
the agents of the Assemblies, who were usually arrayed 
against the governors of the colonies, w^ere the most formi- 
dable agents in the way of their faithful performance, he ex- 
erted himself Avith the board of trade, to obtain the passage 
of a resolution forbidding any agent to appear before them, 
unless appointed by the co-ordinate branches of the colonial 
government, as well as the Assembly. 

About the time of the passage of this resolution, Franklin 
received an official notification of his appointment as agent 
of the colony of Massachusetts, to appear for "the House at 
the court of Great Britain, before his Majesty in council, or 
either House of Parliament, or before any public board." 
With this notification he waited upon Lord Hillsborough, to 
inform him of his appointment ; Lord Hillsborough questioned 
its validity, and broached to Franklin for the first time, his 
doctrines as to what was necessary in order to give validity 
to the acts of the colonial agents. Franklin attempted to 
reason with him on the impropriety of his opinions, alleging 



100 FRANKLIN. [1771. 

what Hillsborough well knew, that in the discontented state 
of the colonies, it would be impossible for the legislative and 
executive branches of the colonial governments to select an 
individual who would be the true exponent of both. He 
was however, uncompromising, and expressed with some 
warmth the opinion, that the agents were the chief fomenters, 
of the discords, agitating the colonies. The debate assumed 
an angry tone on both sides, and they parted, any thing but 
friends. 

During the summer succeeding this interview Franklin 
made a tour through Wales, Ireland and Scotland, in each of 
which he was received with the most marked attention by his 
numerous friends. Whilst in Dublin he met Lord Hillsbo- 
rousrh — who had retired from London to his estates in Ireland, 
to recreate for a short period from the duties of his office — at 
a dinner to which he was invited, given by the Lord Lieu- 
tenant. His Lordship was exceedingly profuse in his com- 
pliments, and invited Franklin and his party to call at his 
house on their tour, which he thought proper to accept. They 
were at his house four days, and were entertained by him 
with the most uncommon civility. This surprised Franklin, 
who could not account for the especial civility bestowed on 
him in particular, inasmuch as a short period before they left 
London, Hillsborough spoke of him as a " factious, mis- 
chievous fellow." 

" He seemed," says Franklin, " attentive to every thing 
that might make my stay in his house agreeable to me, and 
put his eldest son. Lord Killwarling, into his photon with me, 
to drive me a round of forty miles, that I might see the 
country, the seats and manufactures, covering me with his 



Mt. 6b.] LORDHILLSBOROUGH. 101 

own great-coat, lest I should take cold. In short, he seemed 
extremely solicitous to impress me, and the colonies through 
me, with a good opinion of him ; all of which I could not but 
wonder at, knowing that he likes neither them nor me." 

After Franklin had returned to London, he waited on Lord 
Hillsborough to thank him for his civilities ; but "the porter," 
adds he, " told me he was not at home. I left my card, went 
another time, and received the same answer, though I knew 
he was at home, a friend of mine being with him. After in- 
termissions of a week each, I made two more visits, and re- 
ceived the same answer. The last time was on a levee day, 
when a number of carriages were at his door. My coach- 
man driving up, alighted, and was opening the coach door, 
when the porter seeing me, came out and surlily chid the 
coachman for opening the door before he enquired whether 
my lord was at home, and then turning to me said, ' my Lord 
is not at home.' I have never since been nigh him, and we 
have only abused one another at a distance." 

This nobleman did not long continue at the head of Ameri- 
can affairs. The immediate cause of his resignation was at- 
tributed by Franklin, to the course taken by the council, in 
overruling his report on the Ohio settlement, mainly brought 
about by a lucid and able paper written by himself, in oppo- 
sition to it. Franklin, writing to his son says, that Mr. Todd, 
who he met at Lord Le Despencer's, and " who has some at- 
tachment to Lord Hillsborough, in a walk we were taking, 
told me as a secret, that Lord H. was much chagrined at being 
out of place, and could never forgive me for writing that 
pamphlet against his report about the Ohio." 

His lordship was never a popular man among his colleagues, 



102 FRANKLIN. [1772. 

who gladly availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by 
his decision on the Ohio question, to force him to a resigna- 
tion. He was succeeded by Lord Dartmouth, who had al- 
ways been a warm friend of the colonies, and moreover, en- 
tertained a high personal regard for Franklin. Under his ad- 
ministration the colonial agents were restored their former 
privileges, and wiser and more conciliatory counsels seemed 
about to prevail. 

We have hitherto followed the subject of these remarks, 
through a long; and varied career of usefulness and eminent 
distinction, in which from the humblest beginning he rose to 
one of the most elevated positions in life, with fewer enemies, 
and a larger number of personal friends than falls to the lot of 
most men. We are now about to narrate briefly, a circum- 
stance that caused him, notwithstanding the consciousness of 
the rectitude of his conduct, a great deal of uneasiness, and 
subjected him to much false representation and personal 
indignity. 

Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Oliver, of 
Massachusetts, had written to Thomas Whatley, at one time 
a secretary to one of the ministers, and then a member of 
Parliament, a number of private letters, which Franklin be- 
came possessed of in a mode he has never divulged. Think- 
ing that these letters were insidious, contained false repre- 
sentations, and were calculated to affect injuriously the rela- 
tion of the colonies with the mother couatry, he transmitted 
them to Mr. Gushing, in December, 1772, with permission to 
show them to a few friends, but neither to take copies, nor to 
allow them to be published. 

The letters were, contrary to his instructions, produced in 



i^T. 66.] THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 103 

the Assembly, and called forth a series of resolutions directing 
Franklin to procure the dismissal of Hutchinson and Oliver 
from their post, accompanied by a petition to the king to that 
effect. Lord Dartmouth was at his country seat when this 
petition arrived. Franklin immediately despatched it to him, 
and on his lordship's return to town, was told by him that it 
had been presented to the king. 

The letters which gave rise to this petition were published 
and sent to London, where they produced considerable ex- 
citement, and eventuated in a duel betwixt Mr. Whatley, the 
son and executor of the gentleman to whom they were ad- 
dressed, and Mr. Temple, who was accused by the former of 
having fraudulently obtained them. This duel resulted in 
Mr. Whatley's receiving a slight wound. In this posture of 
affairs Franklin published a card, acknowledging that he had 
transmitted them, and exculpating Mr. Temple. 

The petition of the Assembly, asking the displacement of 
the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, came up for hearing 
on the 11th of January, 1774. Dr. Franklin and Mr. BoUan 
appeared for the accusation, and Mr. Mauduit and Mr. Wed- 
derburn, for the defence. After the reading of the address 
and several other documents, Mr. Wedderburn remarked, that 
the address mentioned certain papers ; he asked to be informed 
what those papers were. Franklin replied that they were the 
letters of Hutchinson and Oliver. The court asked if they 
were present. Franklin remarked that they were not, but that 
they had attested copies of them. The court desired to know 
of Franklin if he intended to found a charge upon the letters ; 
if so, it would be necessary to produce them. Mr. Wedder- 
burn remarked that they did not desire to take advantage of 



104 FRANKLIN. [1774. 

any imperfection in the proof. They admitted that the let- 
ters were those of Hutchinson and Oliver, but they reserved 
to themselves the right of enquiring how they were obtained. 
Franklin stated that he had not expected that counsel would 
be employed. The court asked Franklin if he had not re- 
ceived notice of Mr. Mauduit desiring to be heard by coun- 
sel on behalf of the accused. Franklin replied that he had, 
but that he thought it a matter of politics rather than of law. 
After some further conversation, Franklin desired three weeks 
to procure counsel. The case was accordingly deferred until 
the 29th. 

On this occasion thirty-five Lords were in attendance, be- 
sides a large number of spectators. The case was opened by 
Mr. Dunning and Mr. Lee, two eminent barristers, as counsel 
for the Assembly, who contented themselves with placing it 
before the council, upon the facts as alleged in the Assembly 
petition. They were followed by Mr. Wedderburn, after- 
wards Lord Loughborough, the king's counsellor, an advocate 
of eminent abilities, and peculiarly sarcastic powers, in a 
speech of great ability and force. The burden of this speech 
was to show that these letters being private and confidential, 
could not have come into Franklin's possession by any fair 
method, and therefore that he was highly culpable in putting 
them to the use he did. In the performance of this task, all 
his peculiar powers as an orator, were put into requisition, 
regardless of Franklin's feelings, "who stood there the butt 
of his invective ribaldry for neai- an hour," with " a counte- 
nance as immovable as if his features had been made of 
wood.'' 

The Assembly's counsel attempted a reply, but in so feeble 



^T. 68.] WEDDERBURN'S ATTACK. 105 

a manner as to afford Wedderburn a complete and signal 
triumjih. We have before stated that Franklin was never 
placed in any position in which he acquitted himself so ably 
as before the bar of the House of Commons, and we may 
now add, that he never was placed in one so humiliating as 
on the present occasion. It would be impossible at this time, 
to decide upon the propriety of the course pursued by him in 
making these papers public, and yet, in allowing his memory 
to rest under the doubt, which the secresy with which he 
chose to enshroud the manner in which they were obtained, 
invested it, nor does it appear necessary for us to give an 
opinion on that subject. We have only to remark, that the 
circumstance was exceedingly inopportune for Franklin's 
composure of mind, and had he anticipated the result that 
followed, we doubt not he would have adopted some less ob- 
jectionable method of apprising the Assembly of the secret 
movements of their Governor, than the one resorted to by him. 

The council decided in favor of Hutchinson and Oliver, and 
on the day following, Franklin was informed that his services 
as Postmaster General, would henceforth be dispensed with. 
He was fully prepared for this event, as he had previously 
received information from a reliable source, of the intention 
of the ministry to disgrace him, and that Wedderburn would 
be employed for that purpose, and indeed, had an intimation 
that it was in contemplation to seize his papers, and imprison 
him in Newgate. If such a purpose was ever seriously en- 
tertained by the government, it was never acted upon. 

" From the time of the affront given me at the council 
board, in January, 1774," writes Franklin, "I had never at- 
tended the levee of any minister. I made no justification of 
U 



106 FRANKLIN. [1774. 

myself from the charges brought against me ; I made no re- 
turn of the injury by abusing my adversaries ; but held a cool 
and sullen silence, reserving myself to some future oppor- 
tunity, for which conduct I had several reasons not necessary 
here to specify. Now and then, I heard it said, that the rea- 
sonable part of the administration was ashamed of the treat- 
ment they had given me. I suspected that some who told 
me this, did it to draw from me my sentiments concerning it, 
and perhaps my purposes, but I said little or nothing upon the 
subject. In the meantime, their measures with regard to New 
England failing of the success that had been confidently ex- 
pected, and finding themselves more and more embarrassed, 
they began, as it seems, to think of making use of me, if they 
could, to assist in disen^aoiino; them. But it was too humili- 
ating to think of applying to me openly and directly, and 
therefore it was contrived to obtain what they could of my 
sentiments through others." 

The negotiations growing out of this attempt of the min- 
istry to secure the good offices of Franklin, are detailed in one 
of the most interesting communications that ever flowed from 
his pen, addressed to his son, while on shiji-board, immedi- 
ately after their unsuccessful termination. He was well as- 
sured that the time for pacific intercourse had passed ; for 
although, as he remarked to Mrs. Howe, sister to Lord Howe, 
aftei'wards in command of the British forces in America, the 
two countries had really no clashing interests to differ about, 
and the Americans had always expressed a willingness, and 
were still ready to meet the mother country on any reasonable 
terms, yet the opposition of the king and ministry to the people 
of the colonies was such, as to preclude the possibility of 



^T. 68.] PROPOSES TERMS. 107 

their acceding to any proposals so conciliatory as to be ac- 
ceptable to the colonists. Nevertheless whilst the faintest 
hope of averting a war, which now seemed inevitable, existed, 
he felt it to be his duty to seize upon it, and if possible, to 
pour oil into the wound which had been permitted to fester 
and irritate for so many years. 

He accordingly, at the urgent request of Mr. Barclay, 
seconded by that of his old and well tried friend. Dr. Fother- 
gill, prepared a series of terms, in the shape of hints for con- 
versation, seventeen in number, embracing the principal mat- 
ters in dispute, to which the colonists would assent. These 
hints were presented afterwards to the ministry, but the con- 
cessions were too humiliating, and after much cavilling, they 
were finally rejected. 

The anxiety manifested by Franklin to avert the rupture, 
the ministry seemed blindly bent upon bringing about, did not 
arise from any fears of the ultimate evils it might entail upon 
his country, for several years previous, in a letter intercepted 
by the government, written to Lord Kames, he remarks : 
" Upon the whole, I have lived so great a part of my life in 
Britain, and have formed so many friendships in it, that I 
love it, and sincerely wish it prosperity, and therefore wish to 
see that union on which I think it can be secured and estab- 
lished. As to America, the advantages of such an union to 
her are not so apparent. She may suffer at present under 
the arbitrary power of this country ; she may suffer for a 
while in a separation from it, but these are temporary evils 
which she will outgrow. Scotland and Ireland are differently 
circumstanced. Confined by the sea, they can scarcely in- 
crease in numbers, wealth and strength, so as to overbalance 



108 FRANKLIN. [1774. 

England. But America, an immense territory, favored by 
nature with all the advantages of climate, soils, great navi- 
gable rivers, lakes, &c., must become a great country, popu- 
lous and mighty ; and will, in less time than is generally im- 
agined, be able to shake off any shackles that may be imposed 
upon her, and perhaps place them on the imposers. In the 
meantime, every act of oppression will sour their tempers, 
lessen greatly, if not annihilate the profits of your commerce 
with them, and hasten their final revolt, for the seeds of lib- 
erty are universally found there, and nothing can eradicate 
them. And yet there remains among that people, so much 
respect, veneration and affection for Britain, that if cultivated 
prudently, with a kind usage and tenderness for their privi- 
leges, they might be easily governed still for ages, without 
force, or any considerable expense. But I do not see here a 
sufficient quantity of the wisdom that is necessai-y to pro- 
duce such a conduct, and I lament the want of it." 

Yet, although Franklin had good reasons to doubt the wis- 
dom that governed the ministerial party, with respect to 
America, he found among the ablest leaders of the opposition, 
wise heads and cool judgments, warmly espousing the cause of 
the colonies, and willing to grant every right demanded by 
them. Among the foremost of these, both as regards the fervor 
with which he espoused their cause, and the consummate 
ability he brought to bear on the subject, was Mr. Pitt, with 
whom Franklin became intimately associated in a friendship 
which lasted to his dying day. 

While Pitt was at the head of the ministry, Franklin had 
on repeated occasions, sought his acquaintance, but without 
success. " He was then," Franklin says, " too great a man, 



^T. 68.] INTERVIEW WITH PITT. 109 

or too much occupied with affairs of greater moment. I was 
therefore obliged to content myself with a kind of non-appa- 
rent and unacknowledged communication through Mr. Potter 
and Mr. Wood, his secretaries, who seemed to cultivate an 
acquaintance with me by their civilities, and drew from me 
what information I could give relative to the American war, 
with my sentiments occasionally on measures that were pro- 
posed or advised by others, which gave me the opportunity of 
recommending and enforcing the utility of conquering Canada. 
I afterwards considered Mr. Pitt as inaccessible. I admired 
him at a distance, and made no more attempts for a nearer 
acquaintance." 

This occurred in the year 1757, soon after Franklin's first 
arrival in England as an agent for Pennsylvania. While on 
a visit to his friend Mr. Sargent, at Halsted, in August, 1774, 
he was informed that Pitt desired to see him, and that it had 
been arranged that Lord Stanhope should carry him next day 
to Hayes, Pitt's residence. In accordance with this arrange- 
ment he visited Lord Chatham on the following day, who re- 
ceived him with marked attention, and turned the conversation 
almost immediatel}^ to American affairs, in which he expressed 
himself warmly their friend. 

In the course of this interview, Pitt alluded to the jirevalent 
opinion that America aimed to establish her independence of 
British rule, to which Franklin replied, "that having more 
than once travelled almost from one end of the continent to 
the other, and kept a variety of company, eating, drinking 
and conversing with them freely, he had never heard, in any 
conversation from any person, drunk or sober, the least ex- 
pression of a wish for a separation, or hint that such a thing 



110 FRANKLIN. [1775. 

would be advantageous to America." On parting, Franklin 
promised to apprise Pitt of any thing new he might receive 
concerning America. 

In the following December, he received a letter enclosing 
the petition of Congress to the king. It had been stated 
before this petition arrived, that this body was an illegal one, 
and therefore that the king could entertain no petition from 
them, but after its arrival Franklin lost no time in waiting on 
Lord Dartmouth with it. After taking a day to consider upon 
it, during which time a cabinet council was called, he in- 
formed Franklin that it was a respectful paper, and that he 
would place it before the king. He afterwards informed 
Franklin, that his majesty was disposed to receive it very 
graciously, and would lay it before Parliament at its meeting, 
on the 19th of January, 1775. Franklin now began to en- 
tertain weD grounded hopes that a change of policy was about 
to occur in regard to American affairs, and anticipated the 
dawn of a brighter day ; but these hopes were of short dura- 
tion, for on the assembling of Parliament, the king made no 
mention of the petition in his speech, and although it was sent 
to Parliament, it was enclosed with many more papers on dif- 
ferent matters, so that no immediate notice was taken of it 

In the meantime, Franklin despatched a copy of it to Pitt, 
and seized the first moment he could appropriate to such a 
purpose, to pay a visit to him, and confer personally upon its 
contents. A week was spent in attendance upon Lord Dart- 
mouth, and in consultation with the other colonial agents, be- 
fore he found himself at liberty to visit his noble friend. 

At length, on the 26th of December, he left town, and arrived 
at Hayes at about one o'clock. His reception by Lord Chat- 



^Et. 69.] PITT'S OPINION OF CONGRESS. m 

ham was of the most cordial and agreeable kind, and the 
opinion expressed by that distinguished statesman, of Con- 
gress, was even more gratifying to the feelings of his learned 
guest, than the marked attentions bestowed personally upon 
himself. " They have acted," said Pitt, "with so much tem- 
per, moderation and wisdom, that he thought it the most hon- 
orable assembly of statesmen, since those of the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, in the most virtuous times." 

On the very day of the assembling of Parliament, Frank- 
lin received a note from Lord Stanhope, informing him that 
Pitt would introduce a resolution into the House of Peers, on 
the following day, relating to America, and desired his at- 
tendance. The next day his lordship acquainted him by note, 
that if he M'^ould be in the lobby at two o'clock, Lord Chat- 
ham would himself introduce him. Franklin attended at the 
appointed hour, and on mentioning to Mr. Pitt what had 
occurred betwixt Lord Stanhope and himself, that nobleman 
replied, "certainly, and I shall do it with the more pleasure, 
as I am sure your being present at this day's debate, will be 
of more service to America than mine." He accordingly, took 
Franklin by the arm, and was proceeding to the door near the 
tlirone, when one of the door-keepers informed him that none 
but the eldest sons or brothers of Peers, were allowed to enter 
at that door. "On which," says Franklin, "he limped back 
with me to the door near the bar, where were standing a 
number of gentlemen waiting for the Peers who were to in- 
troduce them, and some Peers waiting for friends they ex- 
pected to introduce, among whom he delivered me to the 
door-keepers, saying aloud, 'This is Dr. Franklin, whom I 



112 FRANKLIN. [I775. 

would have admitted into the house,' which was immediately 
done." 

On this occasion Pitt introduced his motion to address a 
petition to the king, asking him to cause the troops under 
General Gage to be withdrawn from Boston, in order to open 
the way to " a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in 
America," a copy of which was communicated by Lord Stan- 
hope to Franklin, at Pitt's request, and by him forwarded to 
Congress. The presentation of the copy of this motion to 
Franklin, called forth a reply, in which he thus expresses 
himself in regard to this remarkable statesman. " Dr. F. is 
filled with admiration of that truly great man. He has seen, 
in the course of life, sometimes eloquence without wisdom, 
and often, wisdom without eloquence : in the present instance 
he sees both united, and both as he thinks, in the highest de- 
gree possible." The ministry had a decided majority, espe- 
cially on all subjects antagonistic to America, and the motion 
was rejected. 

A few days afterwards, Lord Mahon, Pitt's son-in-law, 
waited on Franklin with a request from Lord Chatham, to 
give him an audience as soon as convenient, as he greatly 
desired to see him on important business. Franklin accord- 
ingly took a post chaise on the following Friday, and went to 
Hayes, whither Pitt had gone, immediately after the close of 
the debate on his motion. The meeting betwixt those two 
great men was very cordial on both sides. During a long 
conversation in which Pitt ens-aged him, he showed Franklin 
the draft of a law relating to America, upon which he de- 
sired his opinion, stating that he had shown it to no one else 
except Lord Camden, nor did he intend to do so before its 



^T. 69.] LORD CHATHAM'S BILL. 113 

presentation ; and he desired Franklin to remain secret upon 
the matter, lest publicity might injure its effect. 

On Sunday, Pitt came to town with his biU prepared for 
presentation, and called upon Franklin with it, at his resi- 
dence in Craven street. " He stayed with me," says Frank- 
lin, "near two hours, his equipage waiting at the door, and 
being there while people were coming from church, it was 
much taken notice of, and talked of, as at that time was every 
little circumstance that men thought might possibly in any way 
affect American affairs. Such a visit from so great a man, on 
so important a business, flattered not a little my vanity, and 
the honor of it gave me the more pleasure as it happened on 
the very day twelve months, that the ministry had taken so 
much pains to disgrace me before the Privy Council." 

On Wednesday, the 1st of February, Lord Chatham intro- 
duced his bill. He sent Lord Stanhope to Franklin to ac- 
company him to the House of Lords, which was very full. 
The measure was sustained by Pitt in a speech of great 
power and eloquence. When he was seated. Lord Dartmouth 
remarked that it contained much grave matter for considera- 
tion, and he therefore hoped their lordships did not expect to 
decide upon it immediately, but would let it lie on the table 
for consideration, to which Lord Chatham readily assented. 
At this juncture, Lord Sandwich took the floor, and in a speech 
of much vehemence and ill feeling, said that he could not 
believe the bill before them to be the production of anj^ British 
Peer, but rather the work of some American, and turning his 
face full towards Franklin, he continued, that he fancied he 
had his eye fixed on the person who drew it up, "one of the 

bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever 
15 



114 FRANKLIN, 



[1775. 



known." This attracted the attention of all eyes towards 
Franklin, who stood leaning against the bar, but who appeared 
to look as unconcerned as if the remark was made for any- 
one else rather than himself. 

Lord Chatham, in reply to this insinuation, avowed the 
plan to be wholly and entirely his own, and stated that he 
was the more particular in making this explanation, inasmuch 
as their lordships appeared to entertain so mean an opinion 
of it. 

The bill was sustained by the Dukes of Richmond and 
Manchester, Lord Shelburn, Lord Camden, and others, but 
the ministerial party voted it down without even allowing it 
to lie upon the table. Even Lord Dartmouth, when one lord 
expressed his approbation of the candid manner in which that 
minister proposed to treat the measure, said, that since he 
had heard the opinion of so many noble lords against re- 
ceiving it, he was fain to alter his mind, and should give his 
vote for its immediate rejection. 

Franklin now supposed that the last link of friendly con- 
nexion betwixt the government and the colonies had been 
severed, and feeling that his residence in London could be 
productive of no benefit to his constituents, prepared to carry 
into execution his long contemplated plan of returning to 
America. He was invited, however, two or three days af- 
terwards to meet Mr. Barclay at Dr. Fothergill's and was 
greatly surprised to learn that the ministry were not much 
averse to his propositions, and at their suggestion, although 
with small hopes of success, made such modifications as it 
was thought might be agreed upon ; at the same time he was 
shown the comments of the ministry on his own proposals. 



Mt. 69.] C0L0NIALNE60TIATI0NS. 115 

It was enforced on him, how necessary it was for America to 
come to an understanding, as it would be an easy matter for 
a British fleet to enter and burn all her sea-port towns, upon 
which he grew warm, and said, the greater part of his small 
property consisted in houses in these towns, which they might 
make bon-fires of when they saw fit, but that it could never 
change his resolution to resist the power of Parliament to 
alter their constitutions at their pleasure, and render unsafe 
every privilege the colonies enjoyed under them. 

Several interviews followed betwixt Lord Howe, Lord 
Hyde and himself, in the course of the ensuing few weeks ; 
but the demands of the government continued so unreasonable 
as to leave little hope of the adjustment of their difficulties. 
In the meantime. Lord North introduced and carried through, 
a motion which it was thought would be acceptable. Lord 
Hyde expressed a similar hope for the result of the motion ; 
but Franklin told him plainly, that it would not be acceptable 
to America, and " that the proposition was similar to no mode 
of obtaining aids that ever existed, except that of a highway- 
man, who presents his pistol and hat at a coach window, de- 
manding no specific sum, but if you will give him all your 
money, or what he is pleased to think sufficient, he will 
civilly omit putting his own hand into your pockets ; if not, 
there is his pistol." 

A short time before he left London, he attended at the 
House of Lords, to hear Lord Camden on the American 
question, and became so disgusted with the "base reflections 
on American courage, religion and understanding," indulged 
in by the ministerial party, that he wrote under the influence 
of high excitement a memorial to be presented to Lord Dart- 



116 FRANKLIN. [1775. 

mouth, which he handed to his friend Thomas Walpole, a mem- 
ber of the House of Commons, to peruse. Walpole looked 
at the memorial and then at its author several times, as if ap- 
prehensive that he had lost his senses, so different was it 
from his usual cautious and cool method of writing. He un- 
dertook to show it to Lord Camden, and get his opinion upon 
it, and returned it in a note the next day to Franklin, saying, 
that it was thought that it might be attended with dangerous 
consequences to his person, and the cause of America ; so it 
was never presented, and he finally closed a mission with 
the English government, in which he was opposed by some 
of the ablest statesmen that nation ever produced, in a man- 
ner, if not satisfactory to his cause, at least in one marked by 
the most consummate ability and skill as a diplomatist and 
statesman. 

During the voyage betwixt London and Philadelphia, which 
was undertaken on the 21st of March, 1775, and terminated 
by his arrival at Philadelphia, on the 5th of the following 
May, his ever active mind was employed in writing out an 
account of his negotiations in London, just closed. In addi- 
tion to this self imposed, but highly important task, he made 
a series of observations on the temperature of the sea water, 
and was the first to ascertain the elevated temperature of the 
gulf stream, since fully confirmed by abundant observations 
and experiments. 

Before he had reached Philadelphia the imprudent zeal of 
the Governor of Massachusetts, in the cause of the croAvn, 
had set the colonies into a blaze by the affair at Lexington, in 
which, by the most unwarranted usurpation of power, the 
lives of a number of citizens had been sacrificed in a struggle, 



JEt. 69.] BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 117 

induced by the overbearing aggression of the British forces. 
This was the crowning act in the measures of the ministry 
and its officials, intended to sever the affection of the colo- 
nists from the mother country, and those who had felt the 
oppression of the government, and yet whose loyalty pre- 
vented them from advocating an ojien rupture, were no longer 
in doubt, but as if by one common impulse, the cry of war 
was resounded from one end of the continent to the other. 

Franklin, on the day after his arrival, was unanimously 
chosen by the Assembly as a delegate in the second Congress, 
which assembled at Philadelphia, in four days afterwards. 
The most important period in the whole history of America, 
had now arrived. It was to be determined whether the colo- 
nies should engage in an vinequal and desolating warfare, by 
attempting to throw off the yoke which had hitherto oppressed 
them, or tamely submit to the grievances so long and yet so 
impatiently borne. Franklin was not one of those to hesitate 
in meeting this question, nor had he any doubts as to the 
ultimate success of the colonists, however much they might 
suffer in the beginning. 

There were others less sanguine, whose timidity induced 
them to pause, and calculate the odds against them before 
rousing the formidable anger of the British lion. The debates 
of Congress were full of the sense of injustice under which 
the colonists supposed themselves to be laboring, by the un- 
constitutional acts of the home government. One party being 
in favor of immediate hostile action, while the otlier was 
anxious to supplicate the government by renewed petition for 
the removal of the causes of their disaffection. To the former, 
was yielded the power to place the colonies in a state of de- 



118 FRANKLIN. [1775. 

fence, to the latter, permission to present a petition to the 
king. 

The permission to petition was allowed somewhat reluct- 
antly by Congresss, to satisfy the earnest solicitations of John 
Dickinson, but against the wishes of a majority of that body, 
who conceived that their dignity might be lessened by again 
resorting to petition, after the contemptuous manner in which 
their former one had been received. Franklin was one of the 
committee appointed to prepare a draft of this paper, but it 
was written by Mr. Dickinson, and with some difficulty car- 
ried through Congress, thus giving " Britain," in the language 
of Franklin, "one more chance, one more opportunity of re- 
covering the friendship of the colonies." 

" My time," continues the letter from which the above ex- 
tract is made, " was never more fully employed. In the 
morning at six, I am at the committee of safety, appointed by 
the Assembly to put the Province in a state of defence, which 
committee holds till near nine, when I am at Congress, and 
that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both these bodies 
proceed with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings ai'e 
well attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain that men 
can be as dilligent with us, from zeal for the public good, as 
with you, for thousands per annum." 

In addition to these onerous duties, he was appointed by 
Congress as Postmaster General, and charged with the im- 
portant task of re-organizing this branch of the public service. 
In the performance of this dut}- he was delegated with exten- 
sive powers to establish such post roads and appoint such 
deputies as he might see fit. 

When General Washington, a few months later, assumed 



^T. 69.] DKCLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 119 

the command of the army, Franklin was selected, with two 
others, as a committee to visit the commander-in-chief, and 
advise with him on the most effectual manner of establishing 
an army to meet the emergency. He was likewise appointed 
a commissioner of Indian affairs, and in addition was chosen 
by the city of Philadelphia, as one of its delegates in the 
Provincial Assembly. So that there was probably no public 
personage of the time who had so many and such multifarious 
political occupations, or whose services were so eagerly sought 
for, or so much relied upon as Franklin. 

In the spring of 1776, he was appointed one of three 
commissioners by Congress, to visit Canada, in order to regu- 
late their military operations, and assist them in forming a 
civil government. The commissioners left Philadelphia on the 
20th of March, and after experiencing unusual hardships, 
from the inclemency of the weather, and the meagerness of 
accommodations, arrived at Montreal about the beginning of 
May. The object of their journey proving fruitless, Franklin 
left Montreal on the 11th of May, and reached Philadelphia 
early in June. 

The period of his arrival was most auspicious, as Congress 
were soon after engaged on a subject of greater impor- 
tance than any which had heretofore been brought before 
them. This was the discussion of a resolution introduced by 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, under instructions received 
from the legislature of the colony of Virginia, declaring the in- 
dependence of the American colonies. Franklin was one of 
the committee appointed to prepare a declaration of their sen- 
timents. The declaration was written entirely by Jefferson, 
and reported by the committee without alteration. 



120 FRANKLIN. [1775. 

While it was under discussion, Franklin who was seated near 
Jefferson, and was much annoyed by the alterations made in 
the draft, remarked to him, " I have made it a rule, whenever 
in my power, to avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to 
be reviewed by a public body. I took a lesson from an inci- 
dent which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman 
printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed hatter, hav- 
ino- served his time out, was about to open a shop for himself. 
His first concern was to have a handsome sign-board with a 
proper inscription. He composed it in these words, John 
Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money," with 
a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit 
it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed 
it to, thought the word hatter tautologous, because followed 
by the words makes hats, which showed he was a hatter. It 
was struck out. The next observed, that the word makes 
mio-ht as well be omitted, because his customers would not 
care who made the hats ; if good, and to their mind, they 
would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third 
said he thought the w^ords/or ready money, were useless, as it 
was not the custom of the place to sell on credit. Every one 
who purchased, expected to pay. They were parted with, 
and the inscription now stood, ' John Thompson sells hats.' 
' Sells hats V says his next friend, ' why, nobody will expect 
vou to inve them awav. What then is the use of that word?' 
It was stricken out, and hats followed, the rather as there was 
one painted on the board. So his inscription was reduced 
ultimately to John Thompson, with the figure of a hat 
subjoined." 

Sometime previous to the signing of the Declaration of In- 



^T. 69.] MINISTER TO FRANCE. 121 

dependence, which took place on the 4th of July, 1776, Frank- 
lin, as one of the committee of secret correspondence, had 
written to his friends abroad, and particularly to Mr. Dumas, 
at the Hague, to ascertain whether the different governments 
of Europe would be likely to afford aid to America in her 
struo-o-le with England. After the enunciation of this docu- 

DO O 

ment it was thought advisable to appoint three commissioners 
to France, to procure aid fi'om that government, which it was 
thought their, animosity to England, might facilitate. Frank- 
lin was selected as one of these commissioners, his colleagues 
being already in Europe. He embarked on the sloop of war. 
Reprisal, about the last of October, and arrived at the mouth 
of the Loire in about thirty days. Here a considerable de- 
tention was rendered necessary by his advanced age, and 
the state of his health, so that he did not reach Paris before 
the 21st of December, where he found his colleagues, Mr. 
Deane and Mr. Lee. He soon after took lodgings in a house 
in Passy, near Paris, where he prepared to enter at once into 
the business of his mission. 

Franklin's distinguished reputation as a philosopher and 
statesman, made his arrival a matter of the greatest impor- 
tance in the French metropolis. The representative of popu- 
lar government, and the author of one of the most brilliant 
discoveries in science, honors were heaped upon him with a 
profusion which seemed to know no limit. Not only learned 
societies and people of station strove to do him homage, but 
the mass vied with each other in their unlimited adulation, so 
that wherever he appeared his presence was greeted with the 
liveliest emotions of pleasure. Pictures, busts, and prints of 
him were sold in astonishing numbers, and medallions of sizes 
16 



122 FRANKLIN. [1777. 

to set in rings and snuffboxes, with the inscription of Turgot: 
" Eripuit c(eIo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis," were every 
where to be met with. 

"By the effect which Franklin produced in France," says 
the historian Lacretelle, "one might say that he fulfilled his 
mission, not with a court, but with a free people. Diplomatic 
etiquette did not permit him often to hold interviews with the 
ministers, but he associated with all the distinguished person- 
ages who directed public opinion. Men imagined they saw 
in him a sage of antiquity, come back to give austere lessons 
and generous examples to the moderns. They personified 
in him the republic of which he was the representative, and 
the legislator. They regarded his virtues as those of his 
countrymen, and even judged of their physiognomy by the 
imposing and serene traits of his own. Happy was he, who 
could gain admittance to see him in the house he occujDied at 
Passy. This venerable old man, it was said, joined to the de- 
meaner of Phocian, the spirit of Socrates. Courtiers were 
struck with his native dignity, and discovered in him the pro- 
found statesman." 

Although the French government could not openly receive 
the American commissioners, as such, in the face of the 
treaty entered into between them and the English, yet it re- 
solved secretly to furnish the aid they desired to carry on the 
war with England. Before Franklin's arrival, Mr. Deane, 
his colleague in the commission, had procured and shipped to 
America, a large amount of munitions of war, with a million 
of livres secretly advanced to Beaumarchais, to be thus 
expended. 

On the 4th of January, 1777, Franklin informed the secret 



^T. 71.] RECEPTION IN PARIS. 123 

committee, that he had arrived in Paris about two weeks be- 
fore, and had been joined by his fellow commissioners, with 
whom he had had an audience with Count de Vergennes, the 
minister, by whom they were respectfully received. " The 
cry of this nation," he adds, "is for us, but the court, it is 
thought, views an approaching war with reluctance." 

In this latter surmise, however, Franklin was in error, for 
the French government only waited an opportunity to recog- 
nize the independence of the United States, and enter into a 
treaty with them on such a footing as should be agreeable to 
both parties and durable in its character. In the meanwhile, 
it furnished an additional loan of two million of livres, said 
at the time to be that of a generous individual, and seized the 
first defeat of the British troops, to enter into an alliance, 
which was most honorably and nobly maintained by that 
government. 

After this treaty had been signed, Franklin and the other 
commissioners were formally presented to the king, at Ver- 
sailles, and afterwards attended at court on the same footing 
as the representatives of other powers. Auberteuil says, that 
Franklin was accompanied by a great number of Americans, 
and individuals from various countries, to Versailles, on the 
occasion of this presentment. "His age, his venerable as- 
pect, the simplicity of his dress, every fortunate and remark- 
able circumstance in the life of this American, contributed to 
excite public attention. The clapping of hands, and other 
expressions of joy, indicated that warmth of enthusiasm 
which the French are more susceptible of than any other 
people, and the charm of which is enhanced to the object of 
it, by their politeness and agreeable manners. After this 



124 FRANKLIN. [1781. 

audience, he crossed the court on his way to the office of the 
minister of foreign affairs. The multitude waited for him in 
the passage, and greeted him with their acclamations. He 
met with a similar reception wherever he appeared in Paris." 

After serving in this capacity until the year 1781, he asked 
leave of his government to retire, urging his advanced age 
and bodily infirmities as the reason for making such a request. 
" I have," adds he, in a letter to the President of Congress, in 
which he makes this request, "been engaged in public affairs, 
and enjoyed public confidence in some shape or other, during 
the long term of fifty years, an honor sufficient to satisfy 
any reasonable ambition ; and I have no other left but that of 
repose, which I hope the Congress will grant me, by sending 
some person to supply my place." 

Congress declined to comply with his request, and he was 
retained in his place, and finally concluded, with consummate 
ability, in conjunction with the other commissioners sent over 
for that purpose, a treaty of peace, far more favorable to his 
country than the English government at the commencement, 
ever thought of granting. 

While engaged in these important public duties, he did not 
loose sight of scientific investigations. He contributed an 
able paper on the electrical phenomena of the Aurora Bore- 
alis, since confirmed by ample observations, to the Academy 
of Sciences at Paris. He was likewise associated with La- 
voisier, Bailly and Jessieu, in the celebrated royal commission 
to investigate the claims of animal magnetism, then just get- 
ting into vogue, of whose report it is properly remarked by 
Bertrand, that no unprejudiced person can fail to partake of 
the opinions of the celebrated men who were parties to its 
adoption. 



^T. 75.] LEAVES PARIS. 125 

After a residence of upwards of eight years in France, he 
was relieved at his own urgent request, by the appointment of 
Mr. Jefferson, as his successor, and immediately prepared to 
return to his native country. The amount and importance of 
the public business entrusted to his hands during this period, 
far exceeds that ever given in trust to any other ambassador 
from this country ; and although he did not escape the envy 
and detraction of enemies at the time, yet public opinion has 
long since awarded to his diplomatic actions, the highest order 
of statesmanship, and the most unwavering integrity. 

He had, for some time, been a sufferer from two afflicting 
maladies, the gout and the stone. An attack of the former 
of these, gave rise to his amusing article, in which he holds 
an imaginary conversation with his tormentor, which furnishes 
a view of the life he led at Paris. 

The pain induced by the jolting of a carriage was such, 
that he availed himself of the offer of the Queen's litter, and 
set out from Passy in this conveyance for Havre-de-Grace, 
on the 12th of July, 1785. At SouthamjDton, where he re- 
mained some days, he met many of his old English acquaint- 
ances, who cordially welcomed him once more to English ter- 
ritory. He likewise had an interview here with his only son, 
the first for ten years, and became apparently reconciled to 
the course he had taken in sustaining the English side of the 
question in the American revolution, but from the tenor of his 
will, made some years afterwards, it would appear that he 
never fully forgave him for this step. 

When he arrived at Philadelphia, he was met by a large 
concourse of his fellow-citizens, who carried him in triumph, 
to his house, where he was waited upon by the most eminent 



126 FRANKLIN. [1787. 

personages in Philadelphia, among whom was General Wash- 
ington. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, the American Phi- 
losophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania, each 
hastened to make to him appropriate addresses of welcome on 
his return home. 

Whatever dreams of retirement from public duties he had 
indulged, were not speedily to be realized, for he was chosen 
in the October following his return to Philadelphia, Presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania, and continued to hold that office, under 
an annual election, during the period of three years, limited 
as to term of eligibility by the constitution Franklin himself 
had been instrumental in framing. 

When the convention assembled for the purpose of forming 
a constitution for the United States, in 1787, he was returned 
as one of the delegates from Pennsylvania, and although far 
advanced in years, and infirm in body, he felt himself called 
upon by the importance of the subject, to devote his time 
almost exclusively to the business of the convention. 

He had been one of the first to suggest the plan of confed- 
eration among the colonies, and from an intimate knowledge 
of the opinions of the inhabitants of most of them, he had 
long before satisfied himself that nothing short of absolute 
necessity could induce them to part with any of their privi- 
leges for the general good. This absolute necessity arose in 
the united defence the colonies felt themselves called upon 
to make against a common foe, but no sooner was their inde- 
pendence achieved than their old jealousies and prejudices 
returned, and every state sought to conduct its own govern- 
ment in the manner it thought most fit, granting to Congress 
no powers beyond those of a simple recommendatory char- 



iEx. 81.] DEBATES ON THE CONSTITUTION. 127 

acter. They possessed neither the power of raising a revenue 
or regulating commerce, and although allowed to enter into 
an alliance with foreign powers, yet they were deprived of 
the means of making their treaties binding beyond the mere 
caprice of the state that sought to oppose them. With a 
commerce left to the tender mercy of European governments, 
a public credit exhausted, private industry almost annihilated, 
and dependent upon other nations for manufactures, it was 
early foreseen that unless some more efficient government was 
established, the confederation was in danger of falling to 
pieces from the want of union among its several discordant 
parts. Two parties sprang up immediately upon the close of 
the war ; one maintaining the necessity for a closer and more 
extensive confederation among the states than then existed, 
the other urging the necessity for a dissolution of the confed- 
eration as burdensome and unnecessary. 

To the former of these parties Franklin belonged, and ex- 
erted all his great influence in favor of the adoption of the 
constitution, which was debated step by step. After the con- 
vention had been assembled four weeks without coming to 
any conclusion in relation to the subject before them, Frank- 
lin proposed that the convention should be opened with daily 
prayers. "When," said he, "we were sensible of danger in 
our struggle with Great Britain, we had prayers in this room 
for divine protection. Our prayers were heard, and they 
were graciously answered." The motion was not carried. 
A constitution however was adopted by the convention, which, 
whatever defects its framers may have thought it to possess, 
has carried the nation to a height of prosperity its most san- 
guine well wishers could have hardly dared at the time of its 



128 FRANKLIN. [1790. 

adoption, to anticipate. "I consent," remarked Franklin, in 
a conciliatory speech at the close of the convention "to this 
constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not 
sure that it is not the best. The opinion I have had of its 
errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered 
a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were 
born, and here they shall die." 

His term of office as President of Pennsylvania, ceased in 
the autumn of 1788. At this time he lived in a house he 
liad newly finished in Market street, situated in a court with 
a garden and several mulbury trees betwixt it and the street. 
He was surrounded by his six grand -children and their pa- 
rents, his only daughter and her husband, INIr. Bache. 

He was not long permitted to outlive the period of his of- 
ficial duties, yet he was fuLly prepared for the moment of his 
dissolution. "For my own personal ease," he writes in a 
letter to General Washington, in 1789, " I should have died 
two years ago, but though these 3-ears have been spent in ex- 
cruciating pain, I am pleased that I have lived them, since 
they have brought me to see our present situation." The 
stone, from which he suffered, confined him almost entireh* to 
his bed during the last year of his life, and was accompanied 
by paroxysm.s of agonizing pain, for whose alleviation it was 
necessary to administer large doses of opiates. During the 
intervals of pain, he amused himself with reading or cheerful 
conversation with his family and the few friends permitted to 
visit him. 

" About sixteen days before his death," writes his physician, 
Dr. Jones, "he was seized with a feverish disposition, with- 
out an}- particular symptoms attending it, till tlie third or 



iEr. 84.] LAST ILLNESS — DEATH. 129 

fourth day, when he complained of a pain in the left breast, 
which increased until it became extremely acute, attended by 
a cough and labored breathing. During this state, when the 
severity of his pains drew forth a groan of complaint, he 
would observe that he was afraid that he did not bear them as 
he ought; acknowledged his grateful sense of the many 
blessings he had received from the Supreme Being, who had 
raised him from such small and low beginnings, to such rank 
and consideration among men, and made no doubt but that his 
present afflictions were kindly intended to wean him from a 
world in which he was no longer fit to act the part assigned 
him. In this frame of body and mind he continued until five 
days before his death, when the pain and difficulty of breath- 
ing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves 
with the hopes of his recovery, but an imposthume which 
had formed in his lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a 
quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he 
had power, but as that failed, the organs of respiration became 
gradually oppressed, a calm lethargic state succeeded, and on 
the 17th instant, (April, 1790,) about eleven o'clock at night, 
he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty- 
four years and three months." 

His funeral which took place on the 21st, Avas attended by 
the Mayor and City Council in a body, the Executive Council 
and members of Assembly, the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, and other societies, besides a concourse of about twenty 
thousand of his fellow-citizens. Amid the waving of flags at 
half-mast, the discharge of successive volleys of artillery, 
the tolling of muffled bells, and the solemn tones of martial 
music, his remains were consigned to the earth, beside those 
16 



130 FRANKLIN. 



of his wife's, in the cemetry of Christ's Church, over wliich 
have been erected a plain marble slab, according to the di- 
rections of his Avill. 

Yet although his quiet and unostentatious grave is mai'ked 
by no lofty column, or elaborate mausoleum, few names are 
more vividly remembered, or held in higher veneration than 
Franklin's. That he was fortunate in the combination of 
circvmistances which surrounded him at his outset in life, 
cannot be denied, but it required his remarkable self-control 
and eminent abilities to turn these circumstances to a fa- 
vorable account. Indeed, we discover in this perfect subjec- 
tion of self, one of the most striking elements of his success- 
ful advancement, and long continued and unwavering pros- 
perity. His youth was marked by no very high aims, nor his 
manhood by any inordinate ambition for place or preferment, 
but from early life he had resolved to act well his part, wliat- 
ever that part might be, and whether in the humble sphere in 
which his birth had placed him, or in the exalted position to 
which his talents subsequently elevated him, we lind him the 
same prudent, cautious and sagacious personage. The intel- 
lect always in the ascendant — the grosser passions always in 
subjection. 

So completely had he schooled his temperament, that no in- 
vective, however severe, or taunt however cutting, could dis- 
turb his oquauinuty. or }n-ovoko a retort. Few persons have 
been unfortunate enough to vuidergo the severe trial it fell to 
the lot of Franklin to endure, when in the faithful discharge 
of hisdvity, he found it necessary to arraign Governor Hutch- 
inson, and by this means drew down upon himself, the un- 
gentlemanly, but withering sarcasm oi Wedderburn, in his 



SELFCONTROL. 131 



speech before the privy council. Dr. Bancroft, who was pre- 
snet on that occasion t*ays, that " Dr. Franklin's face was di- 
rected towards me, and I had a full, uninterrupted view of it 
and his person, during the whole time in which INIr. Wedder- 
burn spoke. The Doctor was dressed in a full dress suit of 
spotted INIanchester velvet, and stood conspicuously erect, 
without the smallest movement of any part of his body. The 
muscles of his face had been previously composed, so as to 
afford a tranquil placid expression of countenance, and he did 
not suffer tlie slightest alteration of it to appear during the 
continuance of the speech, in which he was so harshly and 
improperly treated. In short, to quote the words which he 
employed concerning himself on another occasion, he kept 
his countenance as immovable as if his features had been 
made of wood." 

Nor was he apparently more moved by the unbounded 
adulation he received from the people and government of 
France. While welcomed by all classes with the greatest 
degree of enthusiasm, and every where greeted by the multi- 
tude with the most extravagant expressions of delight, he took 
good care to avoid all mention of this applause, and alluded 
to it as indifferently as if he had not the least concern in it. 
We must not conclude from this that he was insensible either 
to censure or praise, for these impulses are found alike in the 
breast of every mortal, but that his perfect control over his 
passions enabled him to conceal these emotions whenever 
they interfered with the accomplishment of his ends or his 
notions of propriety. 

As a philosopher these traits are strikingly characteristic. 
After successfully performing a series of electrical experi- 



132 FRANKLIN. 



merits which he felt convinced would produce a new era in 
that branch of science, he seemed perfectly indifferent as to 
their publicity or fate. They were detailed in a series of let- 
ters to an individual who was left at liberty to dispose of them 
as he might think fit, and were ultimately given to the 
world without his revisal or knowledge, in a manner purely 
accidental. 

As a man of science his reputation rests not alone on his 
skill in accurate observation, or the fertility of his inven- 
tion in the line of experiments, but also upon his power of 
induction and the discovery of general principles. Although 
the proof of the identity of electricity and lightning was that 
which perhaps gave him most eclat in the eyes of the pub- 
lic, yet the general principles which he has expressed in 
his theory are of much more importance to the cause of 
science. They give in the compass of a few sentences, not 
an account of one fact, but the expression of laws of action 
from which when the conditions are known, thousands of 
facts may be deduced. It should never be forgotten that the 
object of science is not the accumulation of mere facts, but 
the discovery of principles or laws, and that these laws are 
rendered available in scientific generalization by being briefly 
expressed in the form of a theory. 

It was at one time supposed that the rival theory of Du 
Faye of two fluids was more susceptible of a mathematical 
form, but this is not the case. All the results of the mathema- 
tical labors which have been bestowed on the theory of Du 
Faye, are as readily deducible from that of Franklin's, Avhile 
the physical conception of the latter is much more simple and 
distinct. It will be recollected that according to this theory 



ELECTRICAL THEORY. 133 



all the phenomena of electricity are produced by the distur- 
bance of the natural state of the equilibrium of one electrical 
fluid which pervades aU bodies ; that the atoms of this fluid 
repel each other and attract the atoms of ordinary mat- 
ter ; that when a body has so much of the fluid that the re- 
pulsion and attraction balance each other, the body is said to 
be in its natural state ; that when more than this quantity it 
is said to be positively electrified ; and when less, negatively ; 
and that when in either of these conditions the natural attrac- 
tions and repulsions do not neutralize each other, and hence 
result the various phenomena denominated electrical. 

This theory is enabled to account for all the appearances of 
electricity, and in consequence has received the approbation 
of most, if not all, modern electricians. Indeed up to this 
time we do not think there are any weU established facts 
directly at variance with it ; though in the progress of 
science a few new postules are required in the way of ex- 
tending it, so as to embrace some of the discoveries made 
since his time in galvanism and electro-magnetism. It is 
true, that the theory as left by Franklin required an amend- 
ment, in order to render it logically consistent with all the 
facts known in his time, but with this amendment, which 
was made by Cavendish and iEpinus, it is capable of a math- 
ematical expression from which all the facts belonging to 
statical electricity can be readily deduced in form and in 
quantity. 



REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS. 



The loftiest triumph of Rousseau's genius is said to reside 
in the manner in which in his " Confessions " he is enabled to 
make the most disgusting and polluted scenes appear attrac- 
tive and fascinating, by means of the wonderfully graphic and 
magic power of his language, and it may of Edwards with no 
less truth be affirmed, that with a style so utterly destitute of 
beauty as to appear hedious and deformed, he so completely 
triumphed over the ordinary powers of language by means of 
the enormous strength of his mind, as to compel the atten- 
tion of his most polished readers, for the depth of his reasoning 
alone. If it is true that Rousseau's triumph is the greatest 
"ever won by diction, " it is no less true that that of Ed- 
ward's is the most splendid ever achieved by the force of 
reasoning unaided by any of the blandishments of language. 

He was the only son of the Rev. Timothy Edwards, a 
clergyman of the Puritan sect. His mother, whose name was 
Stoddard, was likewise the daughter of a clergyman of the 
same persuasion, and is represented as a woman of remarka- 
ble intellectual capacity. He had ten sisters, five of whom 
were older and five younger than himself, from whom many 
of the most respectable families in the New England states, 
date their ancestry. He was born on the 5th of October, 
1703, in the secluded village of Windsor, on the banks of the 
Connecticut river. His father was the clergymen of the little 



YALE COLLEGE. 135 



band who sought this lonely hamlet in the midst of an im- 
mense wilderness, to free themselves from the religious tur- 
moils which were agitating their native country, and it is not 
a matter of surprise that his early thoughts should have been 
highly colored by religious influences. The description he 
has left in his own hand-writing of the manner in which his 
tenderest years were spent, and of the devotional musings 
which formed a part of his youthful existence, seems almost 
incredible, even for that age of intense religious enthusiasm, 
and among that people, who treated all levity as an illusion 
of the evil one, and mingled prayer and religious conversa- 
tions with their daily avocations. 

His father, who appears to have been possessed of superior 
attainments, gave his personal attention to his preliminary 
education, in common with that of his elder sisters. He com- 
menced the study of Latin at home when but six years of age, 
and made such proficiency in it, as well as the Greek, that 
when he entered Yale College, in 1716, before he had 
reached his thirteenth year, he was considered as very far 
advanced in those studies. 

Yale College which has for so long a period maintained an 
elevated position among the classical institutions of America, 
and claims as its graduates so many distinguished men, was 
at the time when Edwards became its pupil, a prey to a variety 
of untoward events, which retarded its progress for years and 
threatened its final extinction as an institution of learning. 
One of the principal subjects of discord was its permanent 
location, several of the New England towns stoutly maintain- 
ing their right to it. Among the most prominent of these 
were Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hartford and New Haven, at 



136 EDWARDS. [1717. 

which latter place it was finally located, through the instru- 
mentality of a liberal donation made to it by Mr. Yale, whose 
name it now bears. The trustees of the college, in accepting 
this gift, passed a resolution in compliance with the wishes 
of the donor, fixing upon New Haven as its seat ; this was 
further confirmed by a vote of the colonial legislature about 
the year 1717. Although its locality was thus established 
among the waving elms of what has since grown to be the 
beautiful town of New Haven, it did not recover from the ef- 
fects of the distractions growing out of this source of animosity, 
for a number of years afterwards. At the time Edwards 
commenced his coUegiate studies, the students were about 
equally divided between the towns of New Haven and Weth- 
ersfield, thirteen residing in the former and fourteen in the 
latter place, while its rector. Rev. Mr. Andrews, resided at 
Milford, of which parish he was pastor. Edwards was among 
the number who lived at New Haven, but in the year 1717, 
owing to the unpopularity of the instructors, he joined, to- 
gether with the entire New Haven class, his fellow students at 
Wethersfield. In that year eight students of the senior class 
returned to New Haven to receive their degrees, while five 
procured them from Wethersfield. 

In a letter addressed to his sister in March, 1719, from 
Wethersfield, he thus alludes to the circumstance of his leav- 
ing New Haven : " I suppose you are all fully acquainted with 
our coming away from New Haven, and the circumstances of 
it. Since then, we have been in a more prosperous condition, 
as I think, than ever. But the council and trustees having 
lately had a meeting at New Haven concerning it, have re- 
moved that which was the cause of our coming away, viz: 



iEx. 14.] EARLY STUDIES. 137 

Mr. Johnson, from the place of tutor, and have put in Mr. 
Cutler, pastor of Canterbury, president, who, as we hear, in- 
tends very speedily, to reside at Yale College, so that all the 
scholars belonging to our school, expect to return there, as soon 
as our vacancy after the election is over." The appointment 
c*" Mr. Cutler to the presidency of Yale, as anticipated by Ed- 
wards, again drew its students thither, and the affairs of the 
college were placed, for the first time, in a state of prosperity 
which promised future success. The selection of Mr. Cutler 
seems to have been a fortunate one for the institution, and he 
succeeded, as its president, in securing the respect and atten- 
tion of the students, and the good opinion of the inhabitants 
of New Haven. Edwards, in a letter to his father from New 
Haven, dated July, 1719, says, " Mr. Cutler is extraordinarily 
courteous to us, has a very good spirit of government, keeps 
the school in excellent order, seems to increase in learnins:, 
is loved and respected by all who are under him, and when 
he is spoken of in the school or town, he generally has the 
title of president." In the same letter he requests his 
father, in addition to certain mathematical works and instru- 
ments, to send him " The Art of Thinking," which he was 
'' persuaded would be no less profitable than the other (i. e. 
mathematical) works necessary J' 

The latter clause in this letter, developes the peculiarity of 
his mind at this period of his life. He was a thinker, and an 
abstruse thinker, from a very early period, and endeavored to 
fortify this faculty by all the aids within his reach. As early 
as fourteen, when in the second year of his college life, he 
read, for the first time, Locke's Essay on the Human Under- 
standing, from which he says he derived as much pleasure as 
17 



13S EDWARDS. [1720. 

would the most greedy miser, in gathering up some newly 
found treasure. 

This work touched a chord which vibrated through every 
fibre of Edward's intellectual being, and developed those 
trains of thought for which his mind seemed peculiarly fitted. 
It is probable, that like the gifted author of the essay on the 
human understanding, he possessed precisely that character 
of mind which fitted him for a metaphysician, and it is equally 
probable tliat had circumstances directed his thoughts in an- 
other channel, although his great reasoning powers might 
have enabled him to overcome any difficulties which might 
have presented themselves to him, yet he never could have 
attained that distinguished preeminence which rewarded his 
labors in the field of religio-mental philosophy. This char- 
acteristic of mind is discovered in every thing he ever under- 
took, from early childliood to his decease — it has furnished 
the subject for every article that ever flowed from his pen, 
and it breathes through every page of his voluminous writings. 

He accustomed himself at an eai'ly age to the use of the 
pen, although it must be admitted, that from first to last he 
was never a graceful writer. This defect may, in part liave 
arisen from his puritanical associations, which discountenanced 
all such display as vain, and in part from a false estimate of 
his own, of the force of graceful diction, but it is doubtless 
due in a great measure, to the stern unyielding character of 
his mind, whose nvatorials were composed of too harsh a 
fibre, to yield to the graceful modulation of language. Among 
the earliest of his written productions is a collection of " Re- 
marks and reflections of a religious nature," which together 
with his diary, he was in the habit of often re-perusing. 



JEt. 17.] STUDIES DIVINITY. 139 

He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in September, 
17*20, on which occasion he was selected to deliver a Latin 
Valedictory, and was considered the most promising pupil in 
the college. He continued at college for two years afterwards, 
engaged in the study of divinity, and was admitted to the 
])ulpit in his nineteenth year. His first efforts as a pastor, 
wore made at New York, immediately alter his reception into 
the ministry. In this capacity his immense reasoning powers 
soon elevated him to a high position, and although his re- 
ligious discourses were wanting in the imagery of glowing 
language, and attractive eloquence, yet they irresistibly won 
upon the ear of the dullest listener, and fixed the attention of 
the most careless observer. 

But it is not in his capacity as clergyman, hoAvever distin- 
guished he may have been as such, tliat he now attracts our 
attention, or claims a place among the eminent literary and sci- 
entific men of America. He has far higher and more lasting 
claims to the consideration of mankind, than any growing out 
of the ephemeral influences inspired by his clerical duties, 
and limited to the auditors who chanced to be present at his 
discourses. Had his efforts been thus limited, his name would 
long since have slumbered as quietly and unmolested as his 
ashes now do in the grave to which they were consigned. It 
is to Jonathan Edwards, the metaphysician, and the author of 
"An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will," that the learned 
world turns, and ever will turn, as one of the ablest reasoners 
and profoundest thinkers of his age. 

His congregation at New York did not long continue to oc- 
cupy his attention ; and after a residence of eight months, he 
resigned a position which seemed too limited to gratify his 



140 EDWARDS. [1724. 

ambition, and returned, although with some lingering feelings 
of regret at parting with the many kind friends whose ac- 
quaintance he formed, to the residence of his father, in Wind- 
sor. His resignation took place in April, and the subsequent 
summer was spent in the severest application to study and 
writing. His friends in New York, who fully appreciated his 
high intellectual powers, offered him many inducements to 
return, but without avail. Many other congregations in New 
England solicited his aid, but he declined all proifers of the 
kind made to him, and continued to occupy himself with 
study, preparatory to the reception of the degree of JNIaster of 
Arts, which was conferred upon him at the college com- 
mencement in 1723. He received at the same time the 
appointment of tutor, although there was not a vacancy in the 
college, nor present need for his services. The following 
year Avas passed by him in study at New Haven, and in 
June, 17'24, he became associated with the college, by assum- 
ing the active duties of the post he had nominally held for 
some months previous. 

At the time when he entered upon the duties of tutor, the 
institution was without a rector to preside over it, and was 
involved in a great degree of embarrassment. Its former 
rector, Mr. Cutler, had abandoned the Puritan worship, and 
taken refuge in the Episcopalian church. This step produced 
a great excitement both within and without the college, and 
soon after led to his resignation. In addition to this, the col- 
lege discipline was much disordered and the students were 
turbulent and refractory. The entire management, both of its 
instruction and government, therefore devolved upon Edwards 
and two associate tutors, who were about the same age with 



^T. 21.] APPOINTEDTUTOR. 141 

himself, all of whom were recent graduates of the institution, 
at a moment when older heads and more mature judgments 
seemed necessary to keep its stormy elements at bay. But 
we have already had occasion to remark, that although young 
in years he was very far advanced in intellectual powers ; and 
it is probable, that the firmness of purpose and eminent abili- 
ties he brought to this emergency enabled the college bark to 
buffet successfully with the most threatening and tempestuous 
sea it had ever been its fate to encounter, and suddenly raised 
it to an elevation more dignified and prosperous than it had 
at any previous period enjoyed. 

His tutorship presents him to us in a new character, and 
one well worthy of our consideration. We have hitherto, 
with one brief exception, observed him as a rigid and un- 
bending student, filial in his affections, punctilious in the ob- 
servance of all the duties of life, and a disciplinarian of the 
severest kind, so far as his own actions were concerned, es- 
tablishing for himself a code of regulations bordering on the 
ascetic, and following them out with a fixedness of purpose 
which knew no variations. He was now to take part in the 
active duties of life ; duties which required the development 
of other traits than those which had previously characterized 
him, for it was not only necessary to impart instruction but to 
win the confidence and esteem of a boisterous, and of late, 
unmanageable class of students. This could only be accom- 
plished by pursuing a less exacting course towards them than 
he demanded of himself, and from the respect and attention 
which he secured from his pupils, we are warranted in the 
assertion, that however rigid his self-discipline yet in his 



142 EDWARDS. [1726. 

relations with others, he displayed a tenderness of heart and 
manner which compelled admiration and esteem. 

In September, 1726, at the earnest solicitation of his mater- 
nal grandfather, united to the appeals of all his friends, he 
resigned his collegiate position to accept an invitation ten- 
dered to him to become his assistant in the charge of the 
church at Northampton, at that time, on many accounts, the 
most desirable place within the gift of the Presbyterian church 
in New England. He was the more readily induced to take 
this step from the circumstance that the anxiety incident 
upon the position he had so ably occupied, had impaired his 
health, and predisposed him to an attack of disease which 
had kept him confined as an invalid for three months of the 
previous autumn, and had reduced him to the last extremity, 
insomuch that his recovery w^as for a long time considered 
doubtful. During this illness, which seized him while on his 
return from New Haven to his father's residence, he was as- 
siduously watched over by his mother, who evinced for him 
on this as all other occasions, the tenderest affection. Her 
appeals, in addition to those of her father's, did not long allow 
him to remain undecided, and caused his separation from the 
college, after a tutorship of nearly three years, which has 
always been distinguished for the circumstance of bringing 
it from a state of insubordination to one of order and exten- 
sive usefulness. 

His rigid habits of self-discipline, as well as his quaint 
and peculiar mode of reasoning, are fully exemplified 
in the following extract from a diary he was accustomed 
to keep at this period of his life: "I find that when eat- 
ing, I cannot be convinced in the time of it, that if I should 



Mt.22.] self-discipline. 143 

eat more, I should exceed the bounds of strict temperance, 
though I have had the experience of two years of the like, 
and yet as soon as I have done, in three minutes I am con- 
vinced of it. But yet when I eat again and remember it still 
while eating, I am fully convinced that I have not eaten what 
is but for nature, nor can I be convinced that my appetite and 
feeling is as it was before. It seems to me that I shall be 
somewhat faint if I leave off then, but when I have finished, 
I am convinced again, and so it is from time to time. 

"By a sparingness in diet, and eating as much as may be 
what is light and easy of digestion, I shaU doubtless, be able 
to think more clearly and shall gain time : 1. By length- 
ening out my life. 2. Shall need less time for digestion after 
meals. 3. Shall be able to study more closely without injury 
to my health. 4. Shall need less time for sleep. 5. Shall 
more seldom be troubled with the head-ache." 

These extracts exhibit the care he took to prevent indul- 
gence in eating, in which aU accounts agree that he was re- 
markably abstemious, nor was he less regular in the disposi- 
tion of his time. His custom was to rise at four in the morn- 
ing, and devote the early hours of the day in close application 
to study. His usual practice was to spend thirteen hours 
each day in his study, for the most part occupied in develop- 
ing those trains of thought, and in elucidating those princi- 
ples which have been treasured up in his various writings. 
While walking or riding, he usually carried with him a few 
pieces of white paper, and after having pursued a train of 
reasoning to its final results, would attach one of the pieces 
of paper to a particular part of his dress, with a pin, and pro- 
ceed with a second train of thought, which he would termi- 



144 EDWARDS. [1727. 

nate in like manner, so that it was not unusual for him to re- 
turn after a lengthy walk, with several of these mementoes 
about his person. On his arrival at home, he would remove 
one after the other, after writing down the specific chains of 
reasoning they were intended to recall anew to his mind. 

At the age of twenty-three he assumed the duties of the 
clerical profession, with a devotion which concentrated all 
the powers of his mind. To the discharge of this duty, he 
not only brought his great reasoning faculties, but a varied 
store of learning culled from every department of literature 
and science, as the accumulation of the unintermitting hours 
of study to which he had hitherto devoted his life. Mathe- 
matics, astronomy, natural science, logic and mental philo- 
sophy, each of which had received his most careful consid- 
eration, were all made tributary to the absorbing topic of 
the development of theological phenomena. In this, as in 
every other subject which drew his attention, he was not con- 
tent to follow in the paths designated by other men, but 
submitted their systems, part by part, to the great reasoning 
powers which so preeminently distinguished him, and fre- 
quently found that pillar after pillar of the fabric crumbled away 
beneath this investigation. He was not satisfied with demol- 
ishing the theories of those who had preceded him, but strove 
to re-construct upon their ruins, a sj^stem whose leading prin- 
ciples should date from him. 

It is far from our intention to assume that Mr. Edwards de- 
sired to distinguish himself as a religious reformer, or aimed 
at the establishment of a new religious sect. On the contrary, 
his early associations, the external influences which from 
childhood had surrounded him, and the impulses of his own 



iEx. 23.] ARMINIAN CONTROVERSY. 145 

heart, all impelled him to the adoption and strenuous support 
of the Puritan church, within whose bosom he had been born 
and educated. On this point he never allowed his mind to 
entertain a question of doubt, but assumed the correctness of 
that form of worship as an undeniable truth, in regard to 
which it would have been sinfid to speculate, and once hav- 
ing settled this question, it furnished him with the starting 
point for his theological investigations. The Presbyterian 
faith was to be sustained, but much of the reasoning and 
theology of his predecessors, signally failed to accomplish this 
object, and he therefore commenced a rigid analysis of every 
portion of the doctrine on which it grounded its claims, en- 
tirely overthrowing many of its strong and seemingly uncon- 
trovertable points, and raising in their stead those positions, 
which have since come to be acknowledged and sustained, 
by the ablest divines in that church, as the true exponents of 
its sentiments and doctrines. 

It was with this view, that he prepared and delivered, among 
others, his famous discourse on the doctrine of "justification by 
faith alone," some years previous to his appearance as an author, 
in opposition to the Arminians, who were ably led by the 
distinguished Dr. Whitby, and had received the support and 
countenance of the greater part of the most eminent divines 
attached to that church, as weU as its most prominent secular 
members, among Avhom were many of his own more imme- 
diate and influential relatives, who strongly opposed with 
much warmth of feeling, this premeditated attempt to scatter 
seeds of discord in the bosom of the Puritan fold. 

The delivery of these discourses was said to have been at- 
tended by the most astonishing results, and induced his first 
19 



146 EDWARDS. [1727. 

appearance as an author, in his " Narrative of Surprising Con- 
versions," which are believed to have flowed from them. 
This narrative first appeared in the form of a letter addressed 
to Rev. Dr. Colman of Boston, who caused it to be published. 
Its details were afterwards somewhat amplified by Edwards, 
and in this form it was published in London under the 
auspices of Rev. Drs. Watts and Guyse, who added to it a 
preface. In 1735 it was republished in Boston, in connection 
with the discourses above alluded to. He had, however, at 
this time made considerable progress in the preparation of his 
treatises entitled " Notes on the Scriptures," " Prophecies 
of the Messiah in the Old Testament and their fulfillment," 
" Types of the Messiah," and his " Miscellanies," all of which 
were afterwards, at difterent periods, given to the public. 

The first of these discourses, which is a complete and ela- 
borate dissertation on the doctrines of "justification by ikith 
alone," of upwards of one hundred printed pages, may, for its 
profound train of reasoning, its acute logical deductions, and 
its abstruse metaphysical speculations, be considered as one of 
the most successful efforts of his genius, and in these particu- 
lars is certainly inferior to no other production from his pen, 
excejit his more extensive treatise on the " Freedom of the 
Will." Indeed in the whole field of dissenting theological 
discussion, it would be difficult to find any dissertation on 
doctrinal points so fully established in its results, admitting 
its premises, as this. And here it may be well to remark, that 
in the development of any subject under his investigation, 
he was in the habit of assuming a few propositions, which 
were simple and readily admitted. From these propositions 
he proceeded to develop their connexions with such consum- 



tEt. 23.] MARRIAGE — PULPIT ORATORY. 147 

mate skill and logical precision, that the conclusions were in- 
evitable. He never sought to bewilder his opponents in the 
cunning mazes of sophistry, but on the contrar}- seemed to 
call forth from their lurking places new and apposite relations 
hitherto concealed, and connect them with his subject with 
such appropriateness and precision, as to baffle the most sub- 
tle and intricate reasoning opposed to him, apparently by the 
simplest and most obvious processes. The difficulties which 
had associated themselves-with the doctrine of justification in 
the minds of the members of his church, were so effectually 
dispelled, under his lucid reasoning, that his views, then new, 
came to be generally admitted, and his treatise is to this day 
the universal text book on that subject for the theological 
students of the Presbyterian persuasion. 

But the fourth of these discourses, and the last of the series 
delivered at the time of "the Surprising Conversions," on 
"the justice of God in the damnation of sinners," is that 
which more than all others attracted the author, and was con- 
sidered by him as the most powerful and effective effort he 
had ever made as a public speaker. 

We have been led to anticipate somewhat the thread of our 
narrative to which we will now return. Mr. Edwards was 
married to Miss Sarah Pierrepont, a daughter of the Rev. 
James Pierrepont, of New Haven, on the 28th of July, 1727. 
Her mother was the daughter of the Rev. Samuel Hooker, 
of Farmington, and granddaughter of the eminent Thomas 
Hooker, of Hartford, designated as " the parent of the Con- 
necticut churches." Miss Pierrepont, who at the time of her 
marriage was scarcely eighteen years of age, was possessed 
of uncommon personal beauty, a highly cultivated mind, and 



148 EDWARDS. [1729. 

great refinement of manners. From this union, which was 
founded on the greatest personal esteem as well as warmth of 
attachment, the most unalloyed happiness continued to flow 
up to its termination by death. 

Edwards's health always delicate, but which under his ex- 
tremely abstemious course of life, had hitherto sustained him, 
now began sensibly to decline, and a relaxation from his la- 
bors, intellectual as well as pastoral, became absolutely ne- 
cessary. An intermission of several months, spent with Mrs. 
Edwards in visiting different portions of New England, re- 
stored him sufficiently to enable him to return to Northampton, 
barely in time to receive the parting blessing of his aged 
colleague and venerated grandfather, who died in February, 
1729, in a ripe old age, lamented and honored for his private 
worth and his public usefulness. The entire duties of his 
congregation now devolved upon him, which he discharged 
with great ability, but which were attended with no circum- 
stance of sufficient note to render this portion of his life of 
especial interest, until the period of his " Surprising Conver- 
sions," to which we have already alluded. This period, as 
we have heretofore had occasion to observe, was not spent in 
idleness, but in the assiduous preparation of several of those 
productions with which his lofty genius has enriched man- 
kind. His position as an eminent pulpit orator had now be- 
come so well established, that his services were sought with 
great eagerness in different portions of New England, and it 
is probable that at this time there was no divine of his de- 
nomination, or perhaps of any other in the colonies, who had 
obtained such an exalted position as himself. This affords 
us another evidence of his great reasoning powers. He was 



^Et. 25.] THOUGHTS ON REVIVALS. 149 

not possessed of an attractive manner, graceful action, or im- 
passioned eloquence, and his writings so far from being 
adorned by the flowers of imagination, or elegancies of style, 
were even harsh and reiDulsive, yet, notwithstanding these 
obvious defects, his immense powers of intellect enabled him 
to gain such a mastery over the minds of his auditors, as to 
compel them to listen to his lengthy doctrinal discourses with 
the most breathless attention. 

In 1742, he again made his appearance as an author, in his 
" Thoughts on the Revival of Religion." This treatise, which 
maintained the high character its author had already obtained 
for scriptural knowledge, and profound theological and meta- 
physical research, owed its inception to one of those pe- 
riodical excitements designated as a '^revival," which began 
at Northampton, in 1740, and continued to spread with more 
or less ardor through New England, New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, for three )^ears, until, as if worn out by the intensity 
of its fervor, it subsided into a long and dreamless slumber of 
nearly seventy years. As might readily be imagined, the 
excitement it induced, was not confined within those healthy 
limits, which the more prudent of those who believed in its 
efficacy, thought advisable. The zeal of an excited croAvd of 
preachers and listeners, had been raised to the highest pitch 
of enthusiasm, their religious fervor taxed to its uttermost 
point of endurance, and their bewildered imaginations height- 
ened by the anticipations of an immediate and universal mil- 
lenium. Their hopes, it is needless to say, were never real- 
ized, and the revival so far from being attended by the 
reformation of morals and exaltation of character its beginninnr 



150 EDWARDS. [1742. 

presaged, continued and terminated amid the greatest irregu- 
larity and disorder. 

Although this revival began in Mr. EdAvards's immediate 
congregation, it does not appear to have owed its origin to 
liim, but was set afloat by a talented and enthusiastic 3'oung 
clergj'man named Buoll, during Edwards's absence at Leicester, 
whither he had gone on a similar, and as it afterwards ap- 
peared, successful errand. Mr. Edwards seconded Mr. Buell, 
both at home and in different parts of New England, and the 
other Provinces, and at the onset gave the movement his un- 
divided support. But when the mischief to which we have 
alluded became manifest, and but too surely indicated the 
disastrous results likely to flow fiom it, he attempted to stay 
the torrent, by the publication of his " Thoughts on the Re- 
vival," which are remarkable throughout for freedom from ex- 
citement, coolness of judgment, and candid reasoning. It 
was the first work which attempted to elucidate the subject 
it treats upon, and received at the time of its publication, as 
well as since, a very extensive circulation. All subsequent 
authors on this subject are under claims to it for many of 
their ablest suggestions, and among the students of that school 
of theology, it is regarded as a text book of the greatest 
value. His treatise on "Religious Affections," published 
shortly after the " Thoughts on Revivals," goes over the same 
ground, and is intended to elucidate the same subject. In 
the former of these works he examines the effect of religious 
influences on communities : in the latter, he pursues the same 
inquiry in regard to individuals ; the former is general in its 
character, and the latter special. Wliatever was the imme- 
diate or ultimate success of these works, whose consummate 



iEx. 39.] TREATISE ON THE WILL. 151 

ability no one will pretend to deny, he found that it was much 
easier to rouse the whirlwind of human passions than to arrest 
its fury. 

His writings, which were almost immediately re-published 
abroad on their appearance at home, gained him many cor- 
respondents among the eminent men of his day, and espe- 
cially those of the Scottish clergy, whose sentiments were in 
unison with his own. Of these, no one maintained a higher 
place in his estimation than the Rev., afterwards, Dr. Erskinc, 
a gentleman of distinguished family, fortune, education and 
superior attainments, and the colleague in the University of 
Edinburgh, of Dr. Robertson, the distinguished historian. In 
a letter to Mr. Erskine, in 1747, he gives the first intimation 
known, of his intention to engage in the preparation of his 
elaborate work on the " Freedom of the Will," which has 
won for him his present exalted position as an author, 
and placed his name as a metaphysician, by the side of 
Descartes, Locke, Malebrance and Stewart. This volume was 
published in 1754, nearly seven years after this announcement 
to Dr. Erskine, and may, from this circumstance, as well as the 
evidence jiresented by the work itself, be considered as his 
most carefully arranged and labored production — probably the 
one on which he desired to rest claims to the consideration of 
posterity. 

^ In sketching the life of Mr. Edwards thus far, we have 
found it marked by great integrit}'- of purpose, and unruffled 
by any serious disappointment. But in an evil hour he lent 
a listening ear to the syren voice of detraction, and under its 
malign influence, the quiet of the philosopher's study van- 
ished, the usefulness of the divine terminated, even the sacred 



152 EDWARDS. [1744, 

torch of friendship was extinguished, and the respected pastor 
became engaged in a bitter and uncompromising warfare 
with his hitherto warmest and most devoted friends. The 
circumstances alluded to, which gave rise to the events we are 
about to narrate, as a curious matter in the private history of 
the Puritan church of New England, and as a most unwar- 
rantable assumption of authority by a pastor of that per- 
suasion, we will give as we find them in his memoirs, pre- 
pared by his descendant, Mr. Dwight. "Mr. Edwards was in- 
formed that some young persons in the town, who were mem- 
bers of the church, had licentious books in their possession, 
which they employed to promote obscene conversation among 
the young people at home. Upon farther inquiry, a number 
of persons testified that they had heard one and another of 
them, from time to time, talk obscenely, as what they were 
led to by reading books of this gross character, which they 
had in circulation among them. On the evidence thus pre- 
sented to him, Mr. Edwards thought that the brethren of the 
church ought to look into the matter, and in order to intro- 
duce it to their attention, he preached a sermon from Heb. 
xii. 15, 16 : ' Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace 
of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, 
and thereby many be defiled ; lest there be any fornicator, or 
profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his 
birthright.' After sermon, he desired the brethren of the 
church to remain; told them what information he had re- 
ceived, and put the question to them in form, whether the 
church, on the evidence before them, thought proper to take 
any steps to examine into the matter ? The members of the 
church, with one consent, and with much zeal, manifested it 



iEx. 41.] CHURCH DIFFICULTIES. 153 

to be their opinion, that it ought to be enquired into, and pro- 
ceeded to choose a number of individuals as a committee of 
enquiry, to assist their pastor in examining into the affair. 
After this, Mr. Edwards appointed the time for the committee 
to meet at his house, and then read to the church a catalogue 
of the names of the young persons, whom he desired to come 
to his house at the same time. Some of those whose names 
were thus read, were the persons accused, and some were 
witnesses ; but through mere forgetfulness or inadvertence on 
his part, he did not state to the church, in which of these 
two classes any particular individual was included, or in what 
character he was requested to meet the committee, whether 
as one of the accused, or as a witness. 

" When the names were thus published, it appeared that 
there were but few of the considerable families in town to 
whom some of the persons named either did not belong or 
were not nearly related. Many of the church, however, hav- 
ing heard the names read, condemned what they had done 
before they got home to their own houses, and whether this 
disclosure of the names, accompanied by the apprehension 
that some of their own connexions were included in the list 
of offenders, was the occasion of the alteration or not, it is 
certain that, before the day appointed for the meeting of the 
committee had arrived, a great number of heads of families 
altered their minds, and declared that they did not think pro- 
per to proceed as they had began, and that their children 
should not be called to an account in such a way for such 
conduct, and the town was suddenly all in a blaze." 

This affair terminated in the signal discomfiture of Mr. Ed- 
wards and his informers by the refusal of the principal per- 
20 



154 EDWARDS. [1746. 

sons interested to submit to tliis inquisitorial investigation 
into tlieir character, on bare, ill defined suspicion. It did 
not, however, leave Mr. Edwards in the same exalted posi- 
tion in which it found him, but led to additional measures of 
crimination, which involved him more inextricably in diffi- 
culty with each step he took to relieve him from his embarrass- 
ed condition. This occurrence took place in the year 1744, 
and was succeeded by a variety of unpleasant events incident 
upon the estrangement of the divine from a portion of his 
flock. Many still clung with lingering affection to the pastor 
with whom they had been associated for so many years, while 
others, especially the younger members of his congregation, 
did not hesitate to express their disapprobation of his pro- 
ceeding on this as well as on all subsequent occasions. The 
spark of discord had been kindled, and as ordinarily occurs, 
great care was taken to prevent its extinguishment for the 
want of additional fuel. Distrust and coldness marked the 
conduct of both pastor and people, and every word and action 
on the part of both become the object of the closest scrutiny, 
and the subject of the most unkind animadversions. 

Mr. Edwards was now led to examine with more scrutiny 
than he had hitherto bestowed on it, the formula for admitting 
communicants, which had been in practice not only during 
his entire connexion with the church, but for upwards of 
twenty years jirevious. The conclusion at which he arrived, 
was that no individual, who did not prove himself to be a 
viftH)Ic Christian, was entitled to partake of it, and was there- 
fore excluded from all participation in its affairs. This opin- 
ion, which was in contrariety to that expressed by his grand- 
father Stoddard, whose memory was held in high esteem by 



^T. 43.] NEW DOCTRINES. 155 

the inhabitants of Northampton, he jirofessed to have hcKl 
from his very first connexion with the church, but which he 
had up to this moment failed publicly to express. In the 
spring of 1749, he attempted to bring the matter of dispute 
between himself and congregation to an issue by a declara- 
tion of this change of government, which excited the most 
lively feeling, and induced his opponents to insist upon his 
immediate and unconditional dismissal. 

Believing that his opinions were not fully understood, he 
proposed to the ajipropriate committee of the church to make 
them known in a series of discourses. This privilege was re- 
fused to him, and his dismissal was again urged with greater 
vehemence than before. They however consented to defer 
calling a council to decide on his case until he should have 
had time to write and publish a defence of his o2:)inions. 
Within the two succeeding months he prepared for publica- 
tion, "Qualifications requisite to a complete standing and full 
communion in the visible Christian Church." An instance 
of celerity in compositions of that class rarely equalled. 
Some time elapsed before its publication could be accom- 
plished, so that the summer had passed away before its ap- 
pearance. In the meantime, the congregation waited in a 
state of the most feverish anxiety for its appearance, not for 
the purpose of perusing it, which few of them did, but to 
hasten the action of the council, whose deliberations they 
hoped would terminate in his dismissal from his pastoral 
charge at Northampton. Notwithstanding the rapidity with 
which this work was written, its logical deductions are so ob- 
vious, and its arguments so overwhelming to the objections it 
attempts to refute, that it succeeded in convincing the whole 



156 EDWARDS. [1750. 

Puritan church in America of the correctness of its conclu- 
sions and continues at the present time to be considered a 
text-book on that subject to students, although at the time of 
its appearance, its author stood alone in its defence. 

Each party debated the ground step by step, and in the 
formation of the council it was finally agreed that it should 
be selected equally, by the pastor and the church, but that he 
should be confined to the county for his selections except in- 
two churches out of the ten that composed the council, in 
other words that he might select three churches within and 
two without the county. After much discussion as to what 
the council were called upon to determine, a resolution was 
passed by the church, " That a committee should be called to 
give us their best advice for a remedy from the calamities 
arising from the present unsettled, broken state of the church, 
by reason of the controversy here subsisting concerning the 
qualifications for full communion in the church; and if upon 
the whole, of what they see and find in our circumstances, 
they judge it best that pastor and people be immediately se- 
parated, that they proceed to dissolve the relation between 
them." Mr. Edwards contended that the council were to 
decide the communion question alone, whereas the church 
were of a different opinion, and inserted the last clause of the 
resolution in order to embrace the grounds of dispute five 
years of incessant warfare had been culminating. The coun- 
cil terminated its discussions 22d of June, 1750. All the 
churches selected by Mr. Edwards voted for, all selected by 
the church, against him. One church selected by him failing 
to send a delegate, his dismission was decided upon by a ma- 



iET. 47.] DISMISSAL— RE A SONS. 157 

jority of one vote ; thus terminated a pastoral connexion he 
had sustained for nearly a quarter of a century. 

Now that the mists of prejudice and personal feeling have 
been dissipated by the lapse of time since intervened, we are 
enabled to examine the subject with more candor than could 
possibly be expected from those whose feelings were inti- 
mately interested in the issue, and notwithstanding the anx- 
ious care manifested by Dr. Hojokins to preserve the virtues 
and cover over the faults of an intimate friend and beloved in- 
structor, or the tender solicitude displayed by Mr. Dwight to 
transmit to posterity the memory of his ancestor, in the most 
attractive and faultless coloring, we are constrained to believe 
that this Northampton difficulty presents the weak point in 
Mr. Edward's life, and stands out from the midst of his many 
virtues like a dark and threatening cloud over a rich and 
beautiful landscape. 

Nor do we incline to the opinion, that these troubles derived 
their origin in the misjudged interference which he attempted 
to use in relation to the works read by the younger people of 
his congregation. It would be a singular circumstance, if in 
his relations as a pastor, tales of this sort had not been fre- 
quently brought to his attention before by officious persons, 
and sustained by the equally weighty evidence, that some 
ascetics had heard fall from the lips of the young and happy, 
expressions which they chose to characterize as sinful and 
obscene, and that therefore they must have derived them 
from the secret perusal of works which the rigid notions of 
the Puritan fathers proscribed as unlawful. It would be a 
somewhat curious feature in the private history of New Eng- 
land life, at that period, to know the precise character of 



158 EDWARDS. [1750. 

the works which the young people of Northampton were so 
eager to read, and their pastor was so anxious they should 
not. As to their character being truly stated in the charge, 
no one whose vision is not dimmed by prejudice will for an 
instant believe. This charge bears its own refutation upon 
its front, and presents the clearest intrinsic evidence of its 
unfaithful representation. The idea could hardly be enter- 
tained for a moment, that the young and virtuous community 
of the then most refined and polished town in New England, 
who had hitherto been distinguished for their attention to reli- 
gious observances, should suddenly have become so debased as 
to seek to feed a depraved appetite, on improper and immoral 
reading, and that this reading should have so developed itself 
in their actions, as to make them the subject of public comment, 
and yet not attract the attention of their immediate families. 
Both virtue and vice are plants of slower growth than this, and 
neither of them are generated and perfected in a single night. 
It is evident that Mr. Edwards was in an irritated con- 
dition of mind, ready to entertain any projoosition which 
might be laid before him, and he seemed to have been 
aware of the absurdity of this one, by committing his friends 
to act in the premises, before laying the whole facts before 
them ; but when it was ascertained that these charges were 
brought against the members of the most respectable families 
in Northampton, whose character challenged the assertion, 
his own immediate friends refused to jirosecute charges they 
believed to be without proper foundation. It is exceedingly 
probable that the volumes which had found their way into New 
England, were some of the poetic and dramatic productions 
now so highly prized, or at worst the works of fiction popular 



CAUSES OF DISAGREEMENT. 159 



at the time, wliich we will admit were not always marked by 
the greatest propriety of language, but could nevertheless be 
read by the pure of heart, with no detriment to their moral 
character. 

It will be remembered that in 1740, about one year pre- 
vious to this occurrence, while Mr. Edwards was at Leicester, 
his place was occupied by Mr. Buell, whose reputation as an 
eloquent and successful speaker, had preceded him, and that 
he had succeeded in setting on foot the " revival," of which 
we had occasion to speak. Now the question very naturally 
arises, what effect the success of Mr. Buell had upon Mr. 
Edwards's mind, and whether his zeal in the cause of his di- 
vine master was such as to cause him to wish the ^' good 
work''' to proceed, even though he might personally lose repu- 
tation by it, or whether there were not some slight feelings of 
wounded pride, which insensibly to himself were allowed to 
rankle in his heart, and develop themselves in his actions. 
We believe Mr. Edwards generally to have been operated upon 
by the purest and most christian like motives, and to have 
sustained an elevated and unsullied character, but he had 
occupied a place of great eminence alone, and it is contrary 
to all the feelings of humanity to believe, that he could wit- 
ness his own congregation taken captive, by the very power 
which had hitherto enabled him to exercise an unlimited 
influence over them, and bound as trophies to the triumjjhal 
car of another, without some of those emotions which in the 
other departments of life, are known to prey upon the happi- 
ness of the man of exalted genius. 

But we have something more tangible than mere suspicion to 
warrant us in the expression of this opinion. In the statement 



160 EDWARDS. 



drawn up by Mrs. Edwards, exhibiting her excessive zeal in re- 
ligious matters, in referring to this visit of Mr. Buell, she says, 
" I had a deep and affecting impression that the eye of God was 
ever upon my heart, and that it greatly concerned me to watch 
my heart, and see that I was perfectly resigned to God, with res- 
pect to the instruments he should make use of to revive religion 
in this town, and be entirely willing, if it was God's pleasure, 
that he should make use of Mr. Buell." How great a sacri- 
fice this conclusion cost this pious and exemplary lady, may 
be judged from the paragraph which immediately follows — 
" and also that other christians should appear to excel me in 
christian experience." It is evident from these extracts, that 
Mrs. Edwards, with all her impassioned fervor in the cause 
of religion, had serious misgivings in her own mind, as to 
whether she did not secretly wish God to withhold his influ- 
ence, rather than to allow his favors to be dispensed by the 
hand of the rival of her husband for pulpit fame, and it was 
only after a perfect abnegation of self, that she became will- 
ing to allow it to proceed. 

We- have thus seen, that such feelings as we have sug- 
gested, actually did find their abode by Mr. Edwards's fire- 
side, during the heyday of the religious excitement, and it 
requires no great stretch of the imagination to suppose, that 
after this had subsided, and allusions were, from time to time 
made, especially by the more youthful portion of the congre- 
gation, who were more susceptible to the oratory of the young 
preacher, favorable to him, that they should have engendered 
irritated feelings, distrust, and a jaundiced state of mind fit- 
ting its possessor to believe the extravagant tales which called 
forth the sermon from the text, Heb. xii. 15, 16. 



MR. DWIGHT'S OPINION. 161 



This denouement, we are told by Mr. Dwight, in his pe- 
culiar phraseology, "was the occasion of weakening Mr. Ed- 
wards's hands in the work of the ministry, especially among 
the young people, with whom by this means, he greatly lost 
his influence," and who steadily and perseveringly opposed 
him from that period until his dismissal, in 1750. The reason 
for this dismissal Dr. Hopkins and Mr. Dwight, in their soli- 
citude for the good name of the subject of this biography, 
inform us, was his peculiar views on communion. That this 
was the ostensible cause is evident, but the origin lies still 
deeper and must be traced back to the sermon from Heb. 
xii. 15, 16. 

Mr. Edwards, who was surrounded by a large and expen- 
sive family, and who knew that very few of the American 
churches were enabled to bestow sufficient compensation upon 
their clergymen, to enable him to live in the manner in which 
his salary at Northampton enabled him to do, desired most 
ardently to retain his position. It is hardly probable there- 
fore, that he would have seized upon this particular moment, 
when the younger members of the congregation were at open 
hostility with him, and the old supine, to insist upon the 
introduction of a new and unpalatable doctrine, whose viola- 
tion he had winked at during his entire ministerial career. 
He felt that his position in the church was daily growing more 
insecure, and that the living which he was so anxious to re- 
tain, as to dispute the ground, inch by inch, with his congre- 
gation, long after he knew that a majority of them were in 
favor of his dismissal, was visibly receding from his hands. 
With a bold stroke of policy which he felt would be decisive 
of his fate, he attempted to establish a standard of fellowship 
21 



162 EDWARDS. [1750. 

in the church, which would have excluded his opponents, and 
compelled his congregation to retain him. This was the in- 
evitable tendency of the adoption of his new sentiments ; but 
few would have stood the searching ordeal, and those would 
have been the aged friends upon whom he depended for sup- 
port. He failed in his purpose and was dismissed. • 

He strove with great earnestness to make this the issue be- 
fore the council, but his chui'ch declined thus to confine it, and 
were so determined upon his dismissal as to refuse to listen to 
those overwhelming arguments, whose inevitable result to 
any unprejudiced mind of that faith, would have been de- 
cided conviction. Of the two hundred and thirty male mem- 
bers of the church, he informs Dr. Erskine, the greater ma- 
jority voted for his expulsion, at all events. How much more 
praiseworthy would it have been magnanimously to have re- 
signed his living, than to be forced from it by such violent 
contention; and yet we are told that "Edwards's conduct in 
this controversy, when viewed in all its circumstances, affords 
one of the most impressive exhibitions of lofty integrity, per- 
fect candor and magnanimity, the world has ever seen."* 

We have dwelt at greater length on this passage in the 
life of Edwards, than our feelings inclined us to do, but while 
we admire his eminent talents and lofty virtues, we are not 
blind to his faults — faults which his friends have not only 
attempted to conceal, but actually to turn into the most he- 
roic virtues ; and we have felt it to be our duty, however 
unwillingly, to declare the conviction which a careful exami- 
nation of the facts has made upon our mind. 

About the close of the year 1750 he received an invitation 

*Rog-cr's Essay on Uic Genius and Writings of EiKvanls, p. 50. 



/Et. 51.] REMOVES TO STOCK BRIDGE. 163 

to become the pastor of the church at Stockbridgc, an Indian 
settlement, and at the same time proposals from the agent of 
the London Society for propagating religion, to take charge of 
the Indian mission, located at that village, both of which he 
accepted, and finally removed there with his family. He 
continued to reside at Stockbridge until 1757, during which 
time his attention was divided between the duties of his pas- 
toral charge, and his studies. Whilst there, he completed his 
work on the " Freedom of the Will," which was published in 
Boston in 1754, and as an important metaphysical treatise, 
involved him in several controversies, to defend it. After 
the publication of this work, he commenced the preparation 
of several other treatises which were afterwards published, 
among which are " God's Last End in Creation," " Nature of 
Virtue," and " A Treatise on Original Sin." The managers 
of the Stockbridge mission, residing in the village were in- 
imical to Mr. Edwards and his ministration, and found the 
means of involving him in innumerable contentions and dif- 
ficulties, whose details are unnecessary here. It need only 
be said, that throughout he manifested an unwavering adher- 
ence to the strictest principles of virtue and high toned integ- 
rity, and endeavored, by every means in his power, to protect 
the civil rights of the poor children of the forest, whose spir- 
itual wants were committed to his chartre. 

This mission never prospered, and the Mohawks, who formed 
a part of it, after the greatest display of patience, retired to their 
villages, and abandoned the scheme as an impracticability. It 
is but an act of justice to Mr. EdAvards, to say that the responsi- 
bility of tlie failure of this mission does not lie individually at 
his door, but was mainly owing to the system itself, which has 



164 EDWARDS. [1757. 

been repeatedly tried, and as often found unsuccessful. Those 
who are acquainted with the history of Indian missions in 
America, need not be told, that other missionaries sent out 
under different auspices, found the means of touching the 
hearts of many of the most formidable chiefs of this powerful 
and warlike tribe, and succeeded in planting the religion of 
Christ in many an Indian hamlet on the banks of that beau- 
tiful and picturesque stream, whose name, at this day, serves 
to perpetuate the remembrance of the tribe that peopled its 
borders, but which a single century has served to dissipate, 
like the withered leaves of their native forests before the 
autumn's blast. 

Whilst at Stockbridge his third daughter married the Rev. 
Aaron Burr, at that time President of Princeton College, who 
died quite suddenly in September, 1757. The vacancy thus 
created in the presidency of the college was tendered to Ed- 
wards, and finally accepted by him after some deliberation as 
to the propriety of so doing. In a letter addressed to tlie 
trustees of the college, in reply to one from them informing 
him of their selection, among other reasons which induced him 
to hesitate, he gives some personal peculiarities which are in- 
teresting as throwing some light on the private life of a man 
whose public character is so well known, and so universally 
esteemed. 

"I was not a little surprised on receiving the unexpected 
notice of your having made choice of me to succeed the late 
president Burr as the head of Nassua Hall. I am much in 
doubt whether I am called to undertake the business which 
you have done me the unmerited honor to choose me for. I 
might mention the many inconveniences and great detriment 



JEt. 53.] LETTER OF OBJECTIONS. 165 

which may be sustained by my removing with my numerous 
family. So far fi-om all the estate I have in the world (with- 
out any prospect of disposing of it, under the present circum- 
stances, but with great loss) now when we have scarcely got 
over the trouble and damage sustained by our removal from 
Northampton, and have but just begun to have our affairs in a 
comfortable situation, for a subsistence in this place, and the 
expense I must immediately be at to put myself into circum- 
stances tolerably comporting with the needful support of the 
honors of the office I am invited to, which will not consist 
with my ability. But this is not my main objection. The 
chief difficulties in my mind in the way of accepting this im- 
portant and arduous office, are these two : First, my own de- 
fects unfitting me for such an undertaking, many of which 
are generally known, besides others of which my own heart 
is conscious. I have a constitution, in many respects, pecu- 
liarly unhappy, attended with flaccid solids, vapidizing and 
scarce fluids, and a low tide of spirits ; often occasioning a 
kind of childish weakness and contemptibleness of speech, 
presence and demeanor, vath a disagreeable dullness and stiff- 
ness, much unfitting me for conversation, but more especially 
for the government of a college. This makes me shrink at 
the thoughts of taking upon me, in the decline of life, such a 
new and great business, attended with such a multiplicity of 
cares, and requiring such a degree of activity, alertness and 
spirit of government; especially as succeeding one so re- 
markably well qualified ' in these respects, giving occasion to 
every one to remark the wide difference. I am also deficient 
in some parts of learning, particularly in algebra and the 
higher parts of mathematics and the Greek classics ; my 



166 EDWARDS. [1758. 

Greek learning having been chiefly in the New Testament. 
The other thing is this, that my engaging in this business will 
not well consist with those views, and that course of employ 
in my study which have long engaged and swallowed up my 
mind, and been the chief entertainment and delight of my 
life." 

On his arrival at Princeton, whither he had gone unaccom- 
panied by his family, but where his daughter, Mrs. Burr, was 
residing, the corporation of the college met and duly installed 
him in tlie presidential chair ; but he had hardly become 
seated in his new and honorable position, before he became 
the victim of a disease, which at that time was spreading its 
ravages through the principal towns of America. The small 
pox was then at Princeton, and great fears were entertained 
lest it should spread extensively. Under the advice of his 
medical adviser. Dr. William Shippen, he was innoculated 
with small pox viris. The disease at first appeared to be un- 
der the control of medicine, but a secondary fever unexpected- 
ly set in which terminated fatally, on the 22d of March, 1758. 
At the time of his decease he was fifty-four years of age, 
and in the full possession of intellectual faculties, which pro- 
mised to the world many sj^lendid achievements. Indeed he 
had already laid out the plan of a series of investigations, 
whose development would have engrossed the labor of a long 
life, and preeminent as his name now stands in connexion with 
his treatise on " The Will,'' it is more than probable that had 
his life been spared, in his years matured by reflection but 
not weakened by age, he might have produced some work 
that would have surpassed this mightiest effort of his genius, 



^T. 54. J LAST ILLNESS — DEATH. 167 

which Dugald Stewart declares "never was, nor never will 
be answered." 

Edwards's writings, as a whole, display an exceedmgly 
strong and comprehensive memory, great force and perspi- 
cuity of thought, and powers of ratiocination equalled by 
few of that or any other age. These powers, which he pos- 
sessed in so eminent a degree, were still further strengthened 
by the most unceasing exertion. His intellectual labors knew 
no relaxation, and so fixedly had his mind become associated 
with one branch of enquiry, that his whole existence may be 
said to have been absorbed in it. His mind, shut out as it 
were by his processes of abstraction from the contemplation 
of the external world, seemed to concentrate its whole ener- 
gies in the analysis of those materials which lie deep hurried 
within. The subjection of his being to one particular train of 
thought, placed his passions and feelings so perfectly under 
control as to give him the appearance of an individual with- 
out those ordinary emotions which characterize the human 
family; hence we find him under the most exciting cir- 
cumstances as calm and collected as if he were perfectly in- 
different as to the result of his investigations. No rich color- 
ing of the imagination, or vivid impression of feeling are ever 
manifested in his writings, and "no sooner does he sit down to 
investigate a subject, than his passions seem as completely 
hushed as though their breath had never ruffled the soul ; its 
surface looks as tranquil, as motionless, and we may add, as 
cold as a sea of ice, and the turbulence of passion seems as 
little likely to disturb the fixed calm of the one as the winds 
of heaven to raise tempests in the other."* 

* Essay on the Genius and Writings of Edwards, p. 19. 



ROBERT FULTON 



But scanty memorials are preserved of Fulton's early 
years, and these are exceedingly common-place, and devoid 
of interest. They show him to have been born in the town- 
ship of Britain, in the county of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 
1765, of poor, but respectable parentage ; to have been left 
fatherless at the early age of three years, to the charge of 
a mother, whose straitened circumstances, prevented her 
from bestowing many advantages upon him either in his edu- 
cation or his future prospects, whatever her wishes or antici- 
pations may have been ; to have procured the simplest rudi- 
ments of an education at a small country school, and thus 
scantily stocked with means, experience or education, to 
have launched out into the great world, at the early age of 
seventeen, to win his way to honor and renown. The mate- 
rials for filling up and perfecting the outlines of this picture 
of his boyhood, are without the reach of the biographer. 

He was possessed of a gay and cheerful disposition, and 
pleasing manners, which rendered him a favorite among liis 
little school companions ; he was likewise endowed with an 
imaginative mind, and had great aptitude in acquiring any 
knowledge which took his fancy. As might be anticipated 
from one of his mercurial temperament, these were seldom 
sought in the more arid fields of elementary knowledge, re- 
quiring an effort of the memory to master them, but in those 



BOYHOOD — FAMILY. 169 



subjects which appealed directly to the imaginative faculties, 
too often to the neglect of severer, but perhaps more useful 
studies. An anecdote illustrative of this, and which likewise 
shows the origin of an acquisition he turned to a very useful 
account a few years later, is related of him by one of his early 
school fellows. 

This school-mate had an elder brother who was fond of 
painting, and was in the habit of parading his paints, at that 
time not easy to procure, on muscle shells. A number of 
these muscle shells, together with his cast off brushes, from 
time to time, fell to the lot of the younger brother, who car- 
ried them to school in his pocket. " Fulton saw and craved a 
part. He pressed his suit with so much earnestness," says 
the person who gave them to him, " that I could not refuse to 
divide my treasure with him, and in fact he soon, from this 
beginning, so shamed my performances by the superiority of 
his own, that it ended in my voluntarily surrendering to him 
the entire heirship to all that came into my possession. 
Henceforth his book was neglected, and he was often severely 
chastised by the school-master for his inattention and diso- 
bedience." 

Fulton's family were not in a position to be of much ad- 
vantage to him in a social point of view. His father, who 
died in the year 1768, was by birth an Irishman, and had emi- 
grated to America, and settled in Lancaster county many 
years before, where he married a Miss Smith, whose family 
were like himself, emigrants from Ireland, of whom quite a 
number had settled on or near the boundary line then in dis- 
pute between the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Al- 
though a few of these emigrants were influential people, yet 
22 



170 FULTON. [1782. 

the greater part, among whom Fulton's progenitors may be 
classed, were in an humble condition, both as regards fortune 
and position. They were hewers of wood and drawers of 
water. Men and women too, who in the land of their child- 
hood had been accustomed to earn their slender subsistence 
by the toilsome labor of the day, and had brought their wants 
and habits with them into that of their adoption. Fulton's 
father, who likewise bore the name of Robert, was a small 
farmer, of such slender means, as to be unable to own the 
land he occupied, at a time when land in a frontier settlement, 
as it then was, bore a small price. He had five children, of 
whom Robert was the third, and the eldest son, three being 
daughters, and two sons. 

Upon the demise of the father, Mrs. Fulton found herself 
in such reduced circumstances as to induce her to remove to 
Lancaster, the capital of the county, and about twenty miles 
distant from her former place of abode, probably with the 
view of resorting to some occupation which might enable her 
to rear her young and growing family. Here Robert attended 
the village school, and imperfectly conned many a lesson, 
under the stern monition of the birchen rod ; for he never ap- 
pears to have exhibited any remarkable proficiency in the ac- 
quisition of learning, and contrasted badly even with the dull 
and plodding pupils of an elementaiy country school, not so 
much from want of intellectual capacity, which his after years 
pretty fully demonstrated, as from the inattention so common 
to imaginative minds, which led him off from more matter of 
fact pursuits to indulge in a crowd of dreamy vagaries, that 
found a partial outlet in the indulgence of taste for painting. 

About the year 1782, he was sent to Philadelphia, to be ap- 



JEx. 18.] AMINIATURE PAINTER. 171 

prenticed to a silversmith, but not finding that ocuupation to 
his mind, he pretty soon abandoned it, and returned to his fa- 
vorite pursuit of painting, not for amusement, as formerly, 
but as a means of procuring a livelihood. 

We find him shortly afterwards established as a miniature 
painter, at the corner of Second and Walnut streets, in Phila- 
delphia, with no mean pretensions to artistical skill, if we 
may judge from the pecuniary success which attended his 
labors. He was at this time, but little more than seventeen 
years of age, and during the four years which intervened be- 
tween his establishing himself in Philadelphia as a miniature 
painter and the attainment of his twenty-first year, he not 
only aided his mother very materially in sustaining her family, 
but likewise found himself possessed of sufficient means to 
purchase a small farm in Washington county, in Pennsyl- 
vania, upon which she was comfortably established, and con- 
tinued to reside during the remainder of her life. 

This incident shows Fulton not to have been wanting in 
filial affection. The casual circumstance of birth had cast his 
lot in poverty ; success in a favorite pursuit had raised him 
from this condition to one of a comparative competence, and 
the first disposition he made of the means placed at his dis- 
posal, was to provide a safe asylum from future want, for his 
surviving parent. It was not vmtil this had been accomplished 
that he felt himself at liberty to gratify the longings of his 
heart, to view for himiself the productions in art of those great 
masters, about which he had heard and read so much, but 
seen so little. 

He accordingly sailed for Europe the same year, instigated 
by the two-fold purpose of attaining to greater proficiency in 



172 FULTON. 



[1784. 



his profession, and likewise of restoring his shattered health, 
which had become extremely precarious. In returning from 
Washington county, he had visited the warm springs of Penn- 
sylvania, but finding himself disappointed in any expectation 
of relief he had hoped to derive from this source, he lost no 
time in speedily getting on ship-board. The distinguished 
Dr. David Hosack, who was on intimate terms with him during 
the latter years of his life, says: "At about eighteen or 
twenty years of age, in consequence of exposure to cold, Mr. 
Fulton was attacked by inflammation of the lungs ; — this was 
succeeded by a spitting of blood and other symptoms indi- 
cating a disposition to pulmonary complaints : under these 
circumstances, at the same time that he was influenced by 
other views, he was induced by his friends, to make a voyage 
to Europe." 

During the last year of his residence in Philadelphia, he 
made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, but just re- 
turned from France, who thought highly of him, and recom- 
mended him to his countryman, Benjamin West, then a resi- 
dent of London, and rapidly rising into fame. This eminent 
and kind hearted painter was so highl}' prepossessed in favor 
of young Fulton, that he invited him to take up his residence 
at his house, where he continued to reside on terms of the 
most cordial intimacy during his continuance in London, 
which was prolonged for several years. 

His foot-prints for a number of years after his arrival in 
England, were not sufiicicntly indelible to leave a permanent 
impress behind them, and we are left to conjecture the nature 
of his occupations. We hear of him in the beautiful and 
wide spread vale of Exeter, in the south-western part of the 



iEx. 20.] CHANGE OF OCCUPATION. 173 

island, and not long after, as a temporary resident of the 
dingy and bustling Birmingham, the emporium of iron manu- 
facture in the British dominions. He had entirely re- 
covered his lost health, and under the influence of his patron, 
had made many distinguished friends, which his pleasing ad- 
dress and agreeable manners enabled him to retain ; but he 
was as yet known only as the promising young artist, pa- 
tronized by the oracle of arts, whose name and fame had yet 
to be acquired. It is more than probable that the south-coast 
attracted his attention as an artist, and that he had o-one thither 
for the purpose of improving his taste by becoming familiar 
with those exquisite pictures of quiet rural scenery, with 
which the vale of Exeter, and indeed the whole neighboring 
coast, so richly abound. 

It would have been more difficult to account for his transi- 
tion from this rural scene to the one whose prominent features 
were the smoke from its forges and the incessant clatter of 
its innumerable hammers, had not his whole train of thought 
and action undergone a change not less marked, than that of 
the scenes in the midst of which we find him. He had re- 
linquished the palette and easel, to become the mechanical 
inventor, stimulated no doubt by the hope of large pecuniary 
rewards, to which the then recent success of Arkwright lent 
additional and brilliant hope, and with the abandonment of 
his first profession, he left the scenes so congenial to the tastes 
of the enthusiastic admirer of nature, for the workshops of 
the manufacturer of iron. 

The first evidence of this change of occupation occurred in 
1793, in a project for the improvement of inland navigation, 
which at this period occupied his entire attention. The new 



174 FULTON. [1794. 

direction thus given to his mind, owed its inception to an ac- 
quaintance formed a short time previous with the Earl of 
Stanhope and the Duke of Bridgewater. 

This latter nobleman who was possessed of great wealth and 
influence, had rendered himself still more distinguished by the 
conception and execution of his celebrated canal, which has 
since served as a basis and model of inland navigation in 
England. The original intention of this work, as expressed 
in the act under which it was constructed, was to connect the 
manufacturing town of Manchester with Worsley, at which 
place the Duke of Bridgewater' s coal mines were situated. 
It subsequently underwent several modifications, by which it 
was carried by Preston Brook to Runcorn, and communicated 
with the river Mersey, at that point. This work had been 
completed in 1776, and was already returning to its proprietor 
an ample remuneration for the money expended, in tolls. At 
the time when Fulton was made acquainted Avith the Duke, 
that nobleman was engaged in an attempt to extend a branch 
from his main canal at Worsley mill, to the town of Leigh, 
with a branch to Chat Mass, for the accomplishment of which 
he obtained the passage of an act in 1795, and completed the 
extension in the same j'^ear. 

In May, 1794, the British government granted Fulton a 
patent for an inclined plane, applicable to transportation. The 
same year he laid before the British Society for the Promotion 
of Arts and Commerce, an improvement on the mode of saw- 
ing marble, Avhich received the approbation of the Society, and 
called forth a vote of thanks, as well as the award of an hon- 
orary medal. Various other mechanical contrivances at this 
time, challenged a share of his attention, for some of which 



tEt. 31.] CAN AL NAVIGATION . 175 

he obtained patents, among which is a new means of spinning 
flax, and one for making rope. 

The all engrossing topic however, was that of canal navi- 
gation, on which subject he appeared as the author of a trea- 
tise, in 1796. This work, styled a "Treatise on the im- 
provement of Canal Navigation," and published in London, 
was presented to the public at a very auspicious moment for 
the author, who styles himself upon its title, a civil engineer, 
which profession he had for two or three years previously 
adopted. The public mind in England had become greatly 
excited by the complete success of the bold but fortunate un- 
dertaking of the Duke of Bridgewater, before which, all pre- 
vious attempts of a similar kind sink into utter insignificance, 
and numerous works in different parts of the kingdom, in- 
volving a large expenditure of capital and labor, were planned 
and afterwards put into execution. 

A work on canal navigation was therefore likely to com- 
mand attention. The board of agriculture, to whom he had 
previously submitted his models, highly approved of and 
strongly recommended his plans, so that it was fair to sup- 
pose, that supported by such high authority they would meet 
with general favor. His main purpose was to demonstrate 
the advantage of small canals and boats over larger ones for 
mountainous countries, in which the boats could be raised up 
or depressed from one elevation to another by means of a very 
curious machine, of which he was the inventor, kept in mo- 
tion by the water power acting from above. The work is not 
confined to the advocacy of -these views, but enters into the 
subject of canal navigation at large, and is accompanied by 
many labored calculations. 



176 FULTON. [1796. 

The Shropshire canal, completed in 1792, four years prior 
to the publication of Mr. Fulton's work, was constnicted with 
the view to obviate the precise difficulty he contemplated. 
William Reynolds, Esq., to whom the entire design is due, 
finding the country on the banks of the Severn so mountain- 
ous and elevated as entirel}'^ to preclude the ordinary modes 
of canal construction, conceived the plan of making a series 
of canals at ditFerent levels, and conveying the boats from 
one to the other by means of inclined planes. The first of 
these ascents from the bank of the Severn, was by an in- 
clined plane of 350 yards in length, by means of which a 
perpendicular ascent was overcome of 207 feet. This plane 
•was constructed with a double railroad, allowing boats of five 
tons burden to pass up. Two other ascents of about 120 feet 
each were overcome in a similar manner. The style in which 
this work is written is not remarkable for chasteness or grace- 
fulness of diction, nor indeed could it liave been expected 
from Fulton's inexperience as an author. The plans it re- 
commends for adoption, whatever might have been their 
merits, have long since been superseded by the moi-e simple 
and practical ones modern science has brought into use, in 
some degree through the agency of Fulton himself. 

But whatever their ultimate destination, they were consi- 
dered b}' their author at the time as of the greatest practical 
importance, and he did not hesitate to believe that they would 
meet with universal adoption. His anticipations of emolu- 
ment, Avhich were proportionally inflated, were never realized, 
for notwithstanding the recommendations of the British board 
of agriculture, and the zeal with which the subject was pro- 
secuted by their author, the public manifested great shyness 



^T. 32.] GOES TO PARIS. 177 

in entering into his views. After having received a patent 
from the English government for his canal improvements, he 
visited France for the purpose of securing one in that coun- 
try likewise, which, after a little delay, he obtained. 

His thoughts naturally turned to his native land, as a coun- 
try admirably adapted for the development of his canal 
scheme, and whilst he thought to prove himself a benefactor 
to his countrymen, he at the same time hoped to profit by the 
pecuniary compensation he considered as due to his services. 
He addressed a letter in 1796 to Governor Mifflin, of Penn- 
sylvania, who had called the attention of the Legislature to 
the subject of canal navigation in his message of the prece- 
ding year, in which he alleges that the work was originally in- 
tended for the benefit of his native land, for whose prosperity 
alone he was stimulated to the task. 

Yet notwithstanding all this talk about philanthropy, we 
cannot discover in Fulton any of that noble self-abnegation 
which characterized the actions of a Howard and others of 
similar pursuit. Like most men of inventive genius, he was 
stimulated in his pursuits by a love of fame and the desire to 
accumulate wealth. All the benefits which mankind could 
hope to derive from his labors were secondary to those which 
were to accrue to himself. An evidence of this is to be found 
in the very assiduity with which he prosecuted his claims in 
two great countries for a patent, which is nothing more than 
a legal mode of preventing society from deriving any advan- 
tage from an invention, except by bestowing a corresponding 
benefit on the holder of the patent in return. 

Shortly after Fulton's arrival in Paris, in 1797, he formed 
the acquaintance of Joel Barlow, who a few years afterwards 



178 FULTON. 



[1797. 



became the accredited minister of the American government 
to the Court of St. Cloud. A friendship sprang up betwixt 
them of the most ardent and unreserved kind, only termina- 
ted by death. Mr. Barlow was Fulton's senior by ten years, 
and a native of the State of Connecticut. He had taken the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts at Yale College in 1778, on which 
occasion he had pronounced a poem on the prospects of 
peace, that gave him some reputation. Subsequently he read 
law, and entered upon the practice of it with considerable 
prospect of success at Hartford, in his native State, where he 
married Mrs. Baldwin, a lady of high respectability and great 
accomplishments. 

He had published in 1787 a new poem, entitled the Vision 
of Columbus, which was reprinted in England, and added 
somewhat to his literary fame, although when a few years 
later it assumed a more pompous form under the title of the 
Columbiad, and claimed to be a national epic, it met with 
general condemnation at home and abroad. In the following 
year he visited Europe as the agent of a company for forming 
a colony on the Ohio river on a magnificent scale, and had 
continued to reside there since that period. He was more- 
over a political wu-iter, had been admitted to terms of inti- 
macy with Jefferson, and eulogised by Pitt in the House of 
Commons. In politics he was a zealous rejiublican, of which 
parly Fulton was likewise a member. 

Not long after the beginning of this acquaintance. Barlow 
established himself in his own hotel, where Fulton joiner, 
him, and continued to reside during his residence in Paris 
Like his countryman and intimate associate, his mind was full 
of mighty schemes for the political advancement of the human 



iEr. 32.] TORPEDO. 179 

family, and neither of Ihem appear to have been niggardly in 
withholding advice on such topics, for while Barlow was ad- 
dressing his memoirs to the French government on the sub- 
ject of maritime law, Fulton was engaged in a correspondence 
with Carnot, a member of the executive directory, on the 
subject of free trade. 

A peculiarity of Fulton's mind was that it always busied 
itself with magnificent undertakings. It was entirely un- 
suitcd for that minute, patient and abstracted investigation of 
small matters by which Leewenhock was enabled to detect 
the globular structure of the primary tissues of the body, and 
open the way to those splendid microscopic discoveries that 
have subsequently enriched science, or for the detail by which 
his great master in painting shadowed forth that beautiful 
creation of his imagination, which in the wild and lovely 
Ophelia fills the mind of the beholder with such mingled 
emotions of admiration and astonishment, and if it was ever 
minute in research, and patient in detail, it was because it had 
presented to it the greatness of the subject, imaginary or real, 
that occupied its attention. 

This peculiarity diverted his thoughts, about this period, 
into a new channel, with such force as well nigh to banish 
from his mind his favorite canal scheme, which had now be- 
come an object of secondary importance. This was the in- 
vention of what Crabbe in his Dictionary of Technology 
calls "an instrument something like an infernal machine," 
for blowing up vessels, but which Fulton himself denomina- 
ted a torpedo. This consisted of a hollow copper cylinder 
charged with from fifty to one hundred pounds of gun-powder, 
with a flint lock attached, which by setting a clock work in 



180 FULTON. [1797. 

motion, either by removing a stay, or the operation of a lever, 
exploded the powder within the cylinder at a predetermined 
time. These cylinders were made impervious to water, and 
were intended to be placed beneath men-of-war and other 
vessels, for the purpose of annihilating them. The means of 
explosion was the spark of fire occasioned by the sudden and 
forcible friction of the flint in the lock against a steel pan 
charged with powder, having a direct commimication with the 
entire mass within the cylinder. 

It was as easy to perceive how a vessel with fifty pounds of 
dry powder beneath it, and an ingenius contrivance to ignite 
the mass, could be shivered to atoms, as that a mined fort 
could be destroyed, but the difficulty consisted in placing the 
vessel and its formidable antagonist in this close juxtaposition. 
Fulton at first proposed to effect this object by bestowing on 
the cylinder a progressive motion beneath the Avater, until it 
had reached the point where the explosion was to take place. 
A machine constructed with this vicAv, was tried by him in 
the Seine, in the presence of Mr. Barlow, but it signally 
failed to accomplish what its inventor had intended, and he 
abandoned the project of fixing it in its place by this means. 

After numerous unsuccessful attempts, he at last fell upon 
the expedient of fixing the torpedo in the desired position by 
means of a submarine boat, to which he gave the name of 
Nautilus, invented by him for this purpose. St. Aubin, a 
member of the French tribunate, gives the following de- 
scription of the Nautilus: "The diving boat, in the construc- 
tion of which he (INIr. Fulton) is now employed, will be ca- 
pacious enough to contain eight men, and provisions enough 
for twenty days, and will be of sufficient strength and power 



JEt. 36.] THE NAUTILUS. 181 

to enable him to plunge one hundred feet under water, if ne- 
cessary. He has contrived a reservoir of air, which will en- 
able eight men to remain under water eight hours. When 
the boat is above water, it has two sails and looks just like a 
common boat ; when she is to dive, the masts and sails are 
struck." 

The boat thus described by St. Aubin, never was con- 
structed, although at the time, it was the intention of Fulton 
to have caused it to be built. Through the agency, however, 
of the representative of the government of Holland, he pro- 
cured the means, of which he sadly stood in need, from a 
Holland gentleman named Von Stophaust, to build one of 
smaller dimensions, on the same model. The spring of 1801, 
was spent in superintending the bulling of this vessel. On 
the 3d of July, of the same year, he made his first experi- 
mental trip in the harbor of Brest, with four persons, including 
himself, on board. Having struck her masts and sails, which 
occupied him but two minntes, he descended twenty-five feet 
below the surface of the water, at which depth he stayed his 
experiment, to remedy some imperfection in his machinery, 
which he feared would not admit of a greater pressure than it 
then sustained. Twenty-one days afterwards he repeated the 
experiment. He had, in the meantime, inserted a small win- 
dow of less than two inches square, in the bow of the boat, 
by which means he was enabled to procure a sufficiency of 
light to answer his purposes, which in the former experiment, 
he had felt the need of. Having now become tolerably ac- 
quainted with the qualities of his vessel, he made another de- 
scent two days after, on the 26th of July, and after having 
reached a considerable distance below the surface, made his 



182 FULTON. [1801. 

first essay at changing her position at pleasure beneath the 
water. For this purpose, two of the men were set to work 
the engine containing her motive power, and the third was 
stationed at the rudder, to direct her course, while he super- 
intended the apparatus by which it was maintained at any 
desired depth within the water. In this manner he was en- 
abled to advance about five hundred yards in seven minutes, 
when he arose again to the surface. These experiments were 
frequently repeated until the 7th of August, on'which day he 
remained under the water six consecutive hours, before rising 
'io the surface. 

Fulton, previous to the construction of his boat, had ear- 
nestly appealed to the French government, to appropriate a 
sum of money to enable him to prosecute these experiments, 
but after a series of vacillations betwixt doubts and promises, 
the minister of war communicated to him the unpleasant in- 
telligence, that the government had unequivocally rejected 
his plan as impracticable and visionary. It was at this junc- 
ture when Fulton, confident of the feasibility of his scheme, 
yet sinking into despondency under the disappointment the 
action of the directory had involved him, was almost driven 
to the abandonment of his undertaking, that A'on Stophaust 
came unexpectedly to his aid, by furnishing him with the 
means necessary to construct the vessel, with which the ex- 
periments just described were made. 

AVlien Bonaparte was placed at tlie head of the French 
government, under the title of First Consul, Fulton, inspired 
with renewed hope of substantial aid, lost no time in renew- 
ing his application to the government. On this occasion he 
was more fortunate than before, and a commission consisting 



i^T. 38.] FRENCHCOMMISSION. 1S3 

of La Place, Volney and Mange, were appointed to investi- 
gate his pretensions, before whom the results of the above 
experiments were submitted. His next experiment, performed 
in the presence of large crowds of spectators, among whom 
was admiral Vilaret, was to attack a small shallop, with his 
torpedo. He approached in his sub-marine boat within two 
hundred yards, when he struck her with the torpedo, and 
shivered her to fragments, throwing her remains amid a 
column of water, nearly one hundred feet into the air. 

Fidly armed, as he conceived himself to be, Avith this ter- 
rible weapon, he now sought an opportunity of applying it to 
one of the English men-of-war hovering around the coast of 
France. Inopportunely for the success of his experiments, 
these vessels were not so easily approached as the tenantless 
and unresisting shallop, and no opportunity offered itself to 
test its applicability to any use, beyond that of a mere instru- 
ment of show. The report of the commission was any thing 
but favorable. The French government, disappointed by his 
want of success, began to look coldly upon his scheme, and 
hesitated to appropriate more money towards it. 

Foiled in his expectations of pecuniary compensation from 
this source, he entered into a secret communication with the 
English government, which resulted in an understanding that 
he was quietly to proceed to Amsterdam, and there meet an 
agent of the British government, with whom he might confi- 
dentially confer, on the 'subject of giving to England the ad- 
vantage of the torpedo, rejected by the Bavarian and French 
governments. The preliminary steps that led to this intended 
conference do not appear to have been very fully explained, 
although attempts have been made to do so. 



184 FULTON. [1804. 

Under this arrangement, Mr. Fulton proceeded to Amster- 
dam in October, 1803, where he impatiently awaited the ar- 
rival of the British agent. After a lapse of three months, 
finding that he did not make his appearance, he returned to 
Paris, to which place he was followed by the agent, who was 
the bearer of a letter from Lord Hawkesbury to him, request- 
ing a personal interview in London. To this request he com- 
plied, and arrived in the English metropolis in May, 1804. 

The administration which had opened negotiations with 
him in the meantime, had retired from office, and on his ar- 
rival he found Mr. Pitt at the head of the ministry. After 
his models had been explained to Mr. Pitt, that distinguished 
statesman coolly remarked, that if Mr. Fulton's plans were 
feasible, and could effect in jDractice, what was promised for 
them in theory, they could not fail to put an end to the pre- 
sent system of naval warfare. 

For the purpose of testing their practical utility, the govern- 
ment appointed a commission of great scientific attainments, 
to investigate them. The members of the commission were 
Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, Sir H. Popham, Major Con- 
greve and Mr. Rennie. The commission was appointed in 
June, and after a few weeks' delay incidental upon the exam- 
ination of a new subject, under which Fulton was exceed- 
ingly restive, met, and after examining the plans and models 
submitted to them, reported against the practicability of the 
sub-marine boat unconditionally, and spoke with doubts of 
the torpedo. Mr. Fulton appealed from the judgment of the 
commission to the ministry, who willing to give him every 
opportunity, directed some torpedoes to be used under his su- 
perintendence against the French vessels then in the roads of 



iEx. 39.] THE ENGLISH COMMISSION. 185 

Bologne. Two gun-brigs were accordingly approached under 
the cover of night by boats from the English vessel and tor- 
pedoes thrown against them. They exploded by the side of 
the brigs without doing them any serious injury, beyond crea- 
ting considerable alarm by their formidable appearance, ren- 
dered still more awful by the darkness of the night. 

Fulton, with ready expedients, attempted to explain away 
this, to him really vexatious failure, and for the purpose of 
destroying the prejudice it had created against his scheme, 
obtained permission to blow up a Danish brig anchored in 
sight of Walmer Castle, Mr. Pitt's country residence. This 
vessel, which was arranged for the purpose like the French 
shallop, was blown up and destroyed. Mr. Pitt admitted the 
spectacle to be a very pretty one, but neither himself nor any 
of the other members of the ministry could be brought to be- 
lieve that it possessed any practical utility, and the project 
was abandoned by the government. 

We have thus given in as brief a space as possible the 
facts connected with Fulton's torpedo project in Europe, de- 
rived from the most authentic sources within our reach. One 
word as to his motives. We cannot but consider his conduct 
throughout this entire transaction as highly censurable, to sav 
the least. He had been a resident of England for the ten 
years previous to the invention of his torpedo, and if he did 
not at that time consider himself a citizen of that country, 
which would seem probable from the circumstance of his 
communication to the board of agriculture being made by him 
as a resident of Stockport, and of his patent being granted to 
him as a citizen of London, he was at least bound to it by the 
strong ties of long residence and personal friendship with 
24 



186 FULTON. [1804. 

many of its eminent citizens. These considerations sliouUl 
have deterred him from directing his torpedo against tlie navy 
of that nation, however much he might feel himself justified 
in turning it against that of any other. But when upon his 
loss of favor with the Frencli government, he entered into 
negotiations witli their enemy for the purpose of using it 
against tlieir marine, we can perceive no possible ground for 
the justification of his conduct. 

Fulton soon became aware of tlie questionable position in 
which he had pUiced himself, and attempted to explain it 
aw^ay by a series of letters to the British ministry and Lord 
Grenville, which his friends have made the most of, in ex- 
toiuuition of liis intentions, but unfortunately tliese were all 
written too late, not to leave a doubt as to the object which 
called them into being. If it is true, as stated on the unques- 
tionable authority of his personal friend, the Earl of Stan- 
hope, thai ho was to give lo the English government the be- 
nefit of his torpedo for the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, 
no letter or argument of a subsequent date can do away with 
the impression which that fact must make in the mind of 
every impartial pmson. Our purpose, however, is not to con- 
sure, but to speak tlio truth, for as no painting is correct 
vvliioh does not give the shadows as well as the lights of tlio 
landscape, so no biography is just wliioh does not portray the 
faults as well as the virtues of Iho intlividual wliose life it 
professes to give. 

Fulton at the time complained, and his friends have since 
frequently reiterated tlio complaint, that justice was not ren- 
dered to him by either of the cmumissicxns of the Frojioli en- 
English governments, appointed lo investigate his invention. 



iEx. 39.] FULTON'S COMPLAINTS. 187 

The high character of La Place and Mange, of the French 
ccmniission, and of Sir Joseph Banks and Cavendish, of the 
English, for eminent sciontitic attainments as well as great 
probity, is too well established to allow such a charge to stand 
for an instant, and yet like a stereotyped plate it is to bo 
foiHjd in every biographical sketch of Fulton. It would seem 
as if the admirers of Fulton were willing not only to impli- 
cate the character of every individual composing these com- 
missions, but likewise that of two of the greatest nations on 
the globe, rather than admit his failure in this cxceeiliugly 
questionable matter of the torpedo. 

Fulton's attention for several years prior to the period when 
we iind him energetically, yet unsuccessfully prosecuting his 
torpedo experiments, had been directed to the practicability 
of navigating vessels by steam, and in common with a largo 
number of persons, botli in Europe and America, had sug- 
gested plans for the purpose of accomplishing this object. 
It would appear that the faint light of the early dawn of steam 
navigation was just rising above the eastern horizon, and the 
luuuau mind in almost every part of the civilized world was 
attracted by its feeble glimmerings, and busied in attem])tiug 
to unravel its dimly shadowed phenomena and laws. What 
part Fulton took in this, and what credit is due to him we 
will endeavor in the following pages impartially to de- 
monstrate. 

The first evidence we have on this subject, is a letter ad- 
dressed by him to Lord Stanhope, dated 30th of September, 
1793. 

In the introduction to his treatise on canal navigation, pub- 
lished in 179G, he alludes to tliis correspondence "with iiis 



188 FULTON. [1804. 

lordship on the practicability of navigating vessels by steam," 
but these thoughts appear to be mere interludes upon his 
more favorite topics of canal navigation and the torpedo 
scheme. 

The arrival of Chancellor Livingston in France, whither he 
had been sent as an ambassador from the United States to the 
French government, gave a more definite and practical turn 
to liis hitherto vague speculations on this subject. Mr. Liv- 
ingston, who entertained no doubt as to the ultimate success 
of steam navigation, had procured the passage of an act by 
the Legislature of the State of New York, on the 27th of 
March, 1799, granting to him the exclusive privilege of navi- 
gating the waters of that State for twenty years, under the 
plea that he was the "possessor of a mode of applying the 
steam engine to propel a boat on new and advantageous 
principles."* 

This act, which in effect and words repealed a former one 
of the Legislature, dated 19th of March, 1787, granting tlie 
same privilege to John Fitch, wlio had failed to make it prac- 
tically useful, was reported against on the 23d of March, 1798, 
by the council of revision, consisting of the Governor of tlie 
State, the Chief Justice and his two associates, " because the 
grant of the privileges to Robert R. Livingston intended by 
the bill supposes that the similar privileges which were 
granted to John Fitch by the act thereby to be repealed had 
become forfeited, whereas, it doth not appear that the facts 
on which such forfeiture is to arise have been found by some 
due course of law." The act, however, was passed notwith- 
standing the remonstrance of the council of revision, and Mr. 

*Act of 27th of March, 179S. 



i^T. 40.] LIVINGSTON'S ACCOUNT. 189 

Livingston became invested with all its privileges. He im- 
mediately caused a boat to be constructed of thirty tons bur- 
den, with an apparatus to impel it by steam, in compliance 
with the language of the act, which required him within 
twelve months from its passage, to satisfy the Governor "of 
his having built a boat of at least twenty tons capacity, which 
is propelled by steam, and the mean of whose progress 
through the water with and against the ordinary current of 
Hudson's river taken together, shall not be less than four 
miles an hour." The vessel failed to accomplish what its 
projector had intended, and he suspended his experiments for 
the time. 

The manner in which Fulton's mind become finally di- 
rected to the subject of steam navigation is best told by Mr. 
Livingston in an article written by him on the history of 
steam navigation. 

" Robert R. Livingston, Esq., when Minister in France, 
met with Mr. Fulton, and they formed that friendship and 
connexion with each other, to which a similarity of pursuits 
generally gives birth. He communicated to Mr. Fulton the 
importance of steam boats to their common country ; informed 
him of what had been attempted in America, and of his reso- 
lution to resume the pursuits on his return, and advised him 
to turn his attention to the subject. It was agreed between 
them to embark in the enterprise, and immediately to make 
such experiments as would enable them to determine how far, 
in spite of the former failures, the object was attainable : the 
principal direction of these experiments was left to Mr. Ful- 
ton, who united, in a very considerable degree, a practical, to a 
heoretical knowledge of mechanics. After trying a variety 



190 FULTON. 

of experiments on a small scale, on models of his own inven- 
tion, it was understood that he had developed the true prin- 
ciples upon which steamboats should be built, and for the 
want of knowing which, all previous experiments had failed. 
But as these two gentlemen both knew, that many things 
which were apparently perfect when tried on a small scale, 
failed when reduced to practice upon a large one, they deter- 
mined to go to the expense of building an operating boat upon 
the Seine. This was done in the year eighteen hundred and 
three, at their joint expense, under the direction of Mr. Ful- 
ton ; and so fully evinced the justice of his principles, that it 
was immediately determined to enrich their country by the 
valuable discovery, as soon as they should meet there, and in 
the mean time, to order an engine to be made in England." 
It would appear from this statement, that Fulton was first 
induced to bring his mind practically to this subject, by the 
urgency of Mr. Livingston's request, and that all his prior in- 
vestigations had not impressed him with any great confidence 
in the result. Indeed, both of these gentlemen were aAvare 
of certain hindrances to the success of all previous experi- 
ments, which they now sought to obviate. Whatever there- 
fore, may be said in relation to the early correspondence of 
Fulton with Lord Stanhope, this must be looked upon as the 
time when he commenced in earnest those investigations, which 
have led to results more astonishing than even the most san- 
guine expectations of Fulton or Livingston could have led 
them to anticipate. Nor must we lose sight of the agency 
which Mr. Livingston had in the matter. Possessed of a 
large patrimony, and great personal influence, he used both 
unsparingly in the development of this project, and yet with 



/Et. 40.] THE EXPERIMENT AT PLOMBERAS. 191 

the unaffected modesty of a truly great mind, he abstains 
from claiming any participation in the results his means and 
personal countenance contributed so largely to render suc- 
cessful. 

In the spring of 1802, Fulton accompanied Mrs. Barlow to 
Plomberas, whither she went for the benefit of her health, 
and during his sojourn there, took advantage of the seclusion 
of a little stream, which meandered through the town, for the 
purpose of prosecuting his experiments, the results of which are 
preserved in a series of letters addressed by him to Living- 
ston and Barlow. Up to this time he conceived the practica- 
bility of procuring a motive power by means of resisting 
paddles, attached to endless chains, stretched over two wheels 
protruding from each side of the vessel, but having seen a 
model in Paris in October, 1802, in which a watch maker of 
Trevoux, named Des Blanes, had taken out a patent embra- 
cing substantially his ideas, but which had proved in practice, 
unsuccessful, he was led to the adoption of the paddle wheels, 
as explained in his letter to Earl Stanhope, and which entered 
into the composition of the boat constructed by him at the 
joint expense of Livingston and himself. 

It is not our purpose to set up a claim for Fulton as the in- 
ventor of the paddle wheel, or of its application to the pro- 
pulsion of vessels. It would appear from pretty good au- 
thority that paddle wheels have been found on the represen- 
tations given on many of the tombs of the ancient Egyptians, 
of the boats propelled by oxen on the Nile. 

The work of Valtarius, entitled " De Re Militare," pub- 
lished in 1742, establishes beyond controversy the fact that 
paddle wheels were in use among the Romans, before that 



192 FULTON. [1804. 

period. Besides the " Memoirs of the Jesuit Missions at 
P^jking," published in 1783, contains an engraving of a war 
vessel used by the Chinese government, having two paddle 
wheels on each side, turned by men. The probability is, that 
so far from the paddle wheel being an invention incident u})on 
the application of steam, as a motive power to vessels, it is 
neavly, if not quite coeval with the discovery of the boat 
itself. 

Fulton, who had labored assiduously in superintending the 
progress of his trial boat, was just on the point of bringing 
his labors to a close, wlien an unlooked for accident occurred 
that well nigh disheartened even the sanguine projector him- 
self. He had retired to bed late at night after a day of unu- 
sual excitement and anxiety, and sank towards morning into 
an unquiet slumber, when he was suddenly aroused by a mes- 
senger from the boat, with the unpleasant information that it 
had "broken to pieces and gone to the bottom." 

He lost no time in repairing to the scene of his disaster, 
where he found the messenger's words but too truly con- 
firmed. The construction of the boat was slight and unfaitli- 
ful, and inadequate to sustain the massive and unwieldly 
machinery with which it M^as loaded, and during the preva- 
lence of a high gale on the preceding night, had broken 
in two and sunk, encumbered with its heavy load, to the 
bottom. His feelings at beholding the Avreck of so mau}^ 
months of anxiety, toil and expense, may be more easily ima- 
gined than described. His first sensation on reaching the 
spot he tells us, was one of crushing despondency ; his mind 
was of too elastic a fibre, however, to yield to misfortune, 
and he soon recovered himself and set to work to discover 



iEx. 42.] TRIAL TRIP. 193 

tlie cause and extent of the accident. So intent was he upon 
this occupation, that he continued laboring at the wreck for 
twenty-four hours without sustenance or repose before he 
yielded to the demands which these wants so imperiously 
exercise over the human body. 

The boat proved a total wreck, and required an abnost en-' 
tire reconstruction. The machinery, on the contrary, had sus- 
tained but little damage, and was placed on the new vessel in 
the early part of the month of August. When all was com- 
pleted, Fulton invited the National Institute of France, in a 
body, as well as a great number of distinguished gentlemen 
at Paris, to witness its first experimental trip. Although the 
speed it attained was considerably less than had been antici- 
pated, yet on the whole it was satisfactory to Fulton, and in- 
spired him with renewed hope as to the ultimate success of 
steam navigation. 

His thoughts were now directed to his native land as the 
field of his future operations in steam navigation, and he di- 
rected portions of a steam engine to be made for him by Watt 
Sc Bolton, of Birmingham, England, and sent to New York, 
where the way had already been prepared for him by the ex- 
ertions of his friend and associate, Livino:ston. This jrentle- 
man had some time previously written to his friends at home, 
advising them of the probable success of the experiments, 
Fulton and himself were prosecuting, and obtained the revi- 
val of the law passed in his favor by the passage of a new 
act of April 5th, 1803, granting an extension of tlie same 
privileges to himself and Fulton conjointly for the term of 
twenty years from its passage. 

The intention of Fulton at this time evidently was to re- 
25 



194 FULTON. [1806. 

turn to America at once, but, as we have seen, circumstances 
connected with his torpedo drew him to London. On the 
failure of these plans, he left England, and arrived at New 
York on the 13th of December, 1806. 

A short time before his final departure from France he 
married Miss Harriet Livingston, a daughter of Walter Liv- 
ingston, and near relative of Robert R. Livingston, at whose 
residence he first met with her. This lady was not only 
highly respectable in her connexions, but was possessed of 
many accomplishments and graces. She accompanied him 
on his return to America. 

However much he may have looked to his steamboat en- 
terprise as a means of ultimate aggrandizement, he foresaw 
the delay which would inevitably occur in the perfection of 
his plans and machinery, and the necessity for the immediate 
expenditure of a considerable sum of money. No sooner, 
therefore, had he reached the United States, than he has- 
tened to lay his plans for sub-marine explosions before the 
government, actuated by the double purpose of benefitting it, 
and at the same time of recruiting his finances, preparatory 
to his steamboat experiments. The members of the Presi- 
dent's Cabinet, and more especially Mr. Madison, Secretary 
of State, and Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Navy, were anx- 
ious to bestow upon it a fair trial, but the expenditure neces- 
sary to accomplish this rested with Congress, to whom Ful- 
ton made an application for that purpose, sustained by the 
executive department of the government. The action of 
Congress was somewhat tardy, and Fulton found himself 
obliged to return to New York before it was taken. 

The government, which was about to begin the construction 



^Et. 42.] LAUNCH OF THE CLERMONT. 195 

of a canal from Lake Ponchartrain to the Mississippi river, 
invited Fulton, whose work on Canal Navigation had favorably- 
impressed them with his qualities as a civil engineer, to un- 
dertake the task of conducting the necessary surveys and ex- 
aminations. Fulton politely declined this offer, lest it might 
interfere with the two favorite topics that now exclusively 
engrossed his mind, and constituted the business of his life. 

Immediately on his return to New York from Washington, 
he began the construction of his first steamboat in the United 
States, on which, out of respect to Mr. Livingston, he be- 
stowed the name of Clermont, the name of that gentleman's 
country residence upon the Hudson river. This boat, although 
not constructed on a very expensive scale, so far outran his 
calculations as to its cost, that he was fain to offer one-third 
part of all the emoluments which might accrue from the 
privileges granted to Mr. Livingston and himself, to any in- 
dividual who would furnish the means of defraying one-third 
part of the expense, and yet no person was found hardy 
enough to join him in the undertaking. Not at all dispirited 
by this want of confidence, he continued with his steadfast 
friend Mr. Livingston, to prosecute it, fully assured of its 
final success. By the spring of 1807, the Clermont was let 
off the stocks into the East river, preparatory to the reception 
of her machinery, which had in the meantime arrived from 
the manufactory of Watt & Bolton, in England. The sum- 
mer was spent in adjusting this machinery to the vessel, and 
in August it was so far completed as to be ready for a trial trip. 

In order to a proper comprehension of what is due to Ful- 
ton, it is proper to introduce here a cursory survey of what 



196 FULTON. 

had been accomplished in steam navigation prior to the build- 
ins: of the Clermont at New York. 

The most ancient claim put forward for the application of 
steam to the purposes of navigation, is that in favor of a citi- 
zen of Spain, named Blasco de Garay, who was a sea captain 
b}'^ occupation, and is represented as a person of considerable 
genius. De Garay made known to the Emperor Charles V., 
that he had discovered a new mode of propelling vessels, and 
solicited an opportunity to put it to a practical test. For this 
purpose the emperor appointed a board of commissioners to 
witness the experiments of De Garay, and ordered a ship of 
two hundred tons burden, then vuiloading a cargo of corn at 
Barcelona, to be placed at his disposal. De Garay made a 
public experiment before the ro3'al conimissioners, in the 
harbor of Barcelona, on the 17th of June, 1543, in Avhich a 
majority of the commissioners agree that he caused the ship 
to move at the rate of a league an hour, and that it was 
turned and man<puvered with facility. De Garay was anxious 
to keep his mechanism a secret, but two large moveable 
wheels, and a cauldron of boiling water were easily discov- 
ered as a part of it. The emperor was disposed to give coun- 
tenance to the scheme, but an expedition in which he was en- 
gaged at the moment, engrossed all his thoughts, and diverted 
him from its further prosecution. De Garay was however, 
reimbursed for his expenses from the public treasury, and re- 
ceived in addition, a considerable reward in money, and an 
honorable promotion. The correctness of this statement has 
been called in question. The evidence on which it rests, are 
the documents said to have been lately discovered in the royal 
archives at Simancas, and published in 1825, by Thomas Gon- 



HISTORYOF THE STEAMBOAT. 197 



zalez, director of the archives. This experiment, if it occurred 
at all, took place upwards of a century prior to the in- 
vention of the first acknowledged steam engine, which is 
generally attributed to the Marquis of Worcester, who pub- 
lished an account of his invention in 1655. 

Jonathan Hull, of England, obtained a patent on the 21st 
of December, 1736, for " a new invented machine for carrying 
vessels or ships out of or into any harbor, port or river, 
against wind and tide, or in a calm." His plan was to place 
an atmospheric steam engine in a tug-boat, and to communi- 
cate its power by means of ropes, to the axis of a paddle 
wheel projecting from the stern of the vessel. His plan was 
never carried into practical effect. 

' In 1760, a Swiss clergj'^man of Geneva, Switzerland, vis- 
ited England for the purpose of laying before the commis- 
sioners of the Navy, a plan for propelling a vet;sel by means 
of a steam engine, whose power was to be communicated 
through springs to a species of jointed oar, made in imitation 
of the web-feet of aquatic birds, which would expand while 
propelling the boat, and fold up, so as to offer but little resis- 
tance while passing forward, to make a new stroke. 

Comte d'Auxiron, a French nobleman of considerable at- 
tainments, built a steamboat, which he tried on the Seine, 
near Paris, in 1774. His engine did not prove sufficiently 
powerful to move the paddle wheels which he adopted, and 
he became disheartened by the failure of his first experiment, 
and abandoned the project. In the following year an exceed- 
ingly ingenious person, named Perier, who had assisted the 
Comte d'Auxiron, continued the experiment, with a defective 
engine of one horse power, which he connected to two paddle 



198 FULTON. 

wheels on a small boat. The motion obtained was slight, and 
the result unsatisfactory, but altliough he continued the ex- 
porinients afterwards, adopting oars for paddle wheels, which 
lie considered as the cause of the faihuc, no practical result 
of importance grew out of them. 

In 1778, the INIarquis de JoulFroy commenced a series of 
ex]HM-iments on a nuicli larger scale than any heretofore made, 
at Baume-les-Danies, Avhich so favorably impressed him with 
the practicability of applying steam to tlio purposes of navi- 
gation, tliat in 1781, he constructed a boat on tlie Saone at 
Lyon, which, according to Arago, was forty-six metres long, 
and four and a half broad, being larger than any steamboat 
previously built. This boat possessed the advantage of hav- 
ing more perlect machinery than any of its predecessors, and 
was moved by two paddle wheels, one on each side. The 
political disturbances which occurred about this period, drove 
its projector into exile, and put an end to experiments, that 
certainly gave greater promise of success than any previously 
attempted. 

In 1786, John Fitch, of Philadelphia, completed a boat and 
engine, thus described in the Columbian Magazine for De- 
cember, 1786 : 

" It is to be propelled through the water by the force of 
steam ; the steam engine is to be similar to the late improved 
steam engine in Europe, tlu^se alterations excepted; the cyl- 
inder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal 
force at each end thereof. The mode of forming a vacuum is 
believed to be entirely new, also of letting the water into it, 
and throwing it otf against the atmospliere without any friction. 
The undertakers are also of opinion, tluit their engine will 



FITCH — RUM SEY. 199 



work with equal force to those late improved engines, it being 
a twelve inch cjlinder ; they expect it will move with a clear 
force, after deducting the friction, of between eleven and 
twelve hundred pounds weight ; which force is to be applied 
to the turning of an axle-tree on a wheel of eighteen inches 
diameter. The pii^tou is to move about three feet, and each 
vibration of the piston turns the axle-tree about two-thirds 
round. They propose to make the piston to strike thirty 
strokes in a minute, which will give the axle-tree about forty 
revolutions. Each revolution of the axle-tree moves twelve 
oars five and a half feet; as six oars comes out of the water, 
six more enter the water, which makes a stroke of about 
eleven feet each revolution. The oars work perpendicular, 
and make a stroke similar to the paddle of a canoe. The 
cranks of the axle-tree act upon the oar about one-third of 
their length from this lower end, on which part of the whole 
force of the axle-tree is applied. The engine is placed in 
about the tliird of the boat, and both the action and re-action 
of the piston operate to turn the axle-tree the same way." 

It is exceedingly questionable whether any attempt was 
made to test the working powers of Fitch's boat before the 
following year. The article above quoted speaks of the ex- 
periment as yet to be tried, and alludes not to what it had 
done, but what was expected of it. Mr. Fitch in his petition 
to the government, in 1700, says that he " in the spring of 
1785, conceived the idea of applying steam to the pur])oses 
of propelling vessels through the water." Dr. Rittenhouse 
gave Mr. Fitch a certificate dated 12th of December, 1787, 
which states that he " has frequently seen Mr. Fitch's steam- 
boat, which with great labor and expense, he has at length 



200 FULTON. 

completed, and has likewise been on board when the boat 
was worked against both wind and tide, with a very consid- 
erable velocity by the force of steam only;" from all of which 
it appears pretty clear, that after December, 1786, when the 
description appeared in the Columbian JNIagazine, and before 
December, 1787, when Dr. Rittenhouse's certificate was 
given, the experiments to which he alludes Avere made upon 
the Delaware river, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. 

On the third of December, in the same year, (1787,) an 
experiment was made on the Potomac river, with a steam 
vessel invented by James Rumsey, of Berkley county, Vir- 
ginia, which was witnessed by a number of persons, whose 
certificates were obtained by the inventor. From these, it 
would appear that the speed obtained against wind and tide, 
was three miles an hour. The attestations of Mr. Charles 
Morrow and .loseph Barns, contained in the pamphlet of Rum- 
sey, printed in 1788, go to prove, that Rumsey commenced 
his boat in May, 1785, and that after numerous delays, it w^as 
so far completed that an experiment was made in April, 1786, 
when it moved slowly against the current of the Potomac 
river. A second experiment was made in the December fol- 
lowing, and a third and public one, on the third of Decem- 
ber, 1787. 

A very acrimonious contention ensued betAveen these 
rival inventors, each of whom demanded nothing short of an 
exclusive privilege to navigate all the waters of the continent 
for a specified period. Nor was this altercation or these pre- 
tensions, confined to the parlies themselves, but was largely- 
shared in by their respective friends. Their inventions, how- 
ever, proved equally abortive and useless, and would long 



THE SCOTTISH EXPERIMENTERS. 201 

since have been consigned to oblivion had not pecuniary in- 
terests from time to time fanned their embers into a flickering 
and uncertain flame. * 

In the following year, the anticipation in favor of the sue 
cess of steam navigation, appeared to assume a more tangibh 
shape than it had yet put on, through the united and fricndl} 
labors of Patrick Miller, James Taylor and William Symington, 
of Scotland. 

Mr. Miller was a gentleman of fortune, largely endowed 
with a love for mechanical pursuits, and a zealous promoter 
of such objects as he conceived would conduce to the public 
welfare. Mr. Taylor, in 1785, took up his residence in Mr. 
Miller's family, as a tutor to his sons, and frequently assisted 
him in his experiments on boats, which appeared to occupy 
much of his attention. In 1787, Miller had constructed a 
double boat of great sharpness, about sixty feet in length, to 
which he attached two paddle wheels, as a means of propul- 
sion, to be turned by two men. This boat was matched 
against a fast sailing custom house boat, but it was found that 
a sufficient amount of force could not be applied to the paddle 
wheels to render its execution as effective as was desired or 
anticipated. Taylor suggested a steam engine to work the 
paddle wheels, and likewise mentioned the matter to his 
friend Symington, who had invented a steam carriage, in 
which he placed great confidence. The result was that a 
small engine was constructed with a cylinder four inches in 
diameter, which was placed in a small double pleasure boat, 
owned by Mr. Miller, in October, 1788. An experiment was 
made with this miniature vessel, on Dalswinton lake, at Mr. 
26 



202 FULTON. 

Miller's residence, which resulted in a speed of five miles an 
hour, being greater than had heretofore been attained. 

In 1789 these gentlemen caused an engine of twelve horse 
power, to be built, after the same pattern as the one with 
which the first experiments had been made, except its greater 
size. This Avas placed in a large double custom house boat, 
and tried on the Forth and Clyde canal, where, after correct- 
ing some defect in the jiaddle wheels, a speed was reached of 
seven miles an hour. These gratifying experiments were 
prosecuted no further, and led to no immediate practical re- 
sults. 

Symington, in 1801, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, 
commenced a new series of experiments, to test the practi- 
cability of steam tugs in lieu of horses for drawing boats on 
the same canal which had, some years before, been the scene 
of his former experiment. This tug was moved by ^n engine 
with a hoiizontal cylinder of four feet stroke, working by a 
connecting rod, a crank on the axle of a single paddle wheel 
placed at the stern of the boat. This boat was enabled to 
move at a speed of six miles an hour, when unencumbered, 
ami drew two loaded vessels of seventy tons burden each, 
through the Forth and Clyde canal, in 1802, a distance of 
nineteen miles in six hours, against a strong head wind. This 
experiment, as well as several others of minor note, which 
had been tried in the meantime, was not followed by any 
great practical advantage, and did not seem to further the in- 
troduction of steam navigation. 

While Fulton was in England, prior to his departure for 
America, he sought an interview Avith Symington, and ex- 
pressed a desire to witness the operation of his boat, stating 



SYMINGTON'S EXPERIMENT. 203 



to liim in all candor, that he intended to return shortly to 
America, for the purpose of establishing steam navigation 
upon her numerous and extensive rivers. Mr. Symington 
very politely gratified him in this particular, and made a trip 
for his especial benefit, during which he made notes of the 
most remarkable points about the vessel, and Symington's 
opinions upon steam navigation. 

It is to be regretted that Fulton's biographers have taken 
no notice of this interview, which appears to have created 
some heart burnings on the part of Mr. Symington, and more 
especially is it to be lamented that Fulton did not prepare 
the autobiography he at one time contemplated. Had he 
done so, besides furnishing the world with a picture of the 
doubt and hope, which chequered his eventful life, we are 
assured, he would have left Mr. Symington and his country- 
men, no cause to complain of his want of courtesy. 

It can hardly be laid as a grave charge against Fulton, that 
when about to embark in an enterprise involving a large out- 
lay of capital, and which as yet rested on a very unsubstan- 
tial basis, he should have sought to possess himself of every 
information within his reach, and more especially when he 
sought it, as on the present occasion, with a full and frank 
avowal of his purposes. Nor can he be reasonably charged 
with gleaning such information from this intervieAv as enabled 
him to prosecute his undertaking with the success which 
crowned his efforts in America. The experiments which 
were the basis of his future operations, had already been 
made, and the engine intended for the Clermont, had at that 
moment actually been ordered under specific directions given 
by himself to Watt & Bolton, who after all could have had 



204 FULTON. 

no interest in the matter, except to receive the pecuniary 
compensation due lor their hibor. 

John Stevens, of Hoboken, JNcw Jersey, who had been asso- 
ciated with Livingston in liis early attempts, made a trial 
with a little steamboat which he had built in lSO-4. Tliis boat 
was only twenty-five feet in length and five in widtli, and was 
moved by a steam engine proportionably diminutive, having a 
cylinder of but nine inches stroke, and a boiler of but two feet 
in length. With this little craft he obtained an average speed 
of four miles, and for a short distance, of seven miles an 
hour. Although from this moment Stevens never relin- 
quished bis steam projects eutirelv, yet up to the time when 
Fulton made his exjieriment with the Clernumt, he had failed 
to establish by proof the applicability of steam to the ordi- 
nary purposes of navigation. 

That its dawn had become very perceptible to the whole 
■world, now darting its early beams over the sunny plains of 
France, anon lightingup with a transitory ray the liigh cliffs of 
Scotland, ai\d again sending its light over the bosom of the Dela- 
ware, and far up the mountain recesses of the Potomac, no one 
will deny, but these rays were but the hajbinger of the day, 
whose breaking forth was so eagerly anticipated. It was at 
this critical juncture that the Clermont made her experi- 
mental trip on the Hudson river. 

This vessel, which was ol' one hundred and fifty tons bur- 
den, had a length of one hundred and thirt3'-three feet, a 
Avidth of eighteen feet, and a depth of seven feet. Her en- 
gine, which was superintended by experienced engineers 
from Soho, was considered at the tinu\ as a very creditable 
piece of mechanism. The cylinder was two feet in diameter, 



THE CLERMONT — FIRST TRIAL. 205 



and had a four foot stroke. The paddle wliecls were fifteen 
feet in diameter, Avith paddles attached of four foot length 
and two foot dip into the water. These paddle wheels were 
attached to two cast iron cranks, which connected with 
shackle bars, of stronp; wrought iron, descending from the 
cross bar on the top of the piston rod. 

About the middle of August, FuKon invited a party of 
friends to witness her first trip, among Avhom Avas the 
learned and facetious Dr. Mitchell, of New York, who had 
introduced Livingston's steamboat bill into the legislature, 
where it was opposed on the ground that "it was an idle aiul 
whimsical project, unworthy of legislative action," and drew 
down upon the Doctor all the "jokes and logic of the wags 
and lawyers in the house," which his peculiar gifts enabled 
him so admirably to return. The shore Avas lined Avith an in- 
credulous croAvd Avho had witnessed the operations of Fulton, 
always oi)en to the public, Avith pretty much of the same feel- 
ings that one at the present day Avould bestow on the apparatus 
of some magnificent projector of a mode of navigating the 
air, and were noAv present, doubtless to Avitness his entire ilis- 
comfiture, or from some of those indescribable motives, which 
on any extraordinary occasion, is sure to collect a mass of 
humuu beings together. True it Avas, that this motive Avas not 
to witness a successful experiment, Avhich Avas universally 
doubted, and as Fulton made his Avay through the croAvd, his 
ear Avas assailed by many a rude and unpalatable joke at his 
expense, and the folly of his undertaking. 

Although Fulton had had practical demonstration of the 
ability of steam to projjcl vessels, not only in his OAvn experi- 
ments in France, but in those he had witnessed on the Forth 



206 FULTON. 

and Clyde canal, through the agency of Mr. Symington, yet 
it was not without a flutter of the heart, and an anxiety of 
countenance he was unable to conceal, that he directed the 
machinery of the Clermont to be set in motion. Notwith- 
standing the apparent excellence of his engine, and the supe- 
riority of his boat, there were many defects in the construc- 
tion of both, which rendered her less obedient than could be 
desired ; but after a few moments of hesitancy she yielded to 
the superior force that impelled her, and moved slowly from 
her moorings, into the river. The first sensation of the hith- 
erto unbelieving crowd, was that of astonishment, the se- 
cond, one of admiration, which broke forth in the long and re- 
peated applauses that rent the shore. 

This was a proud, as well as an anxious moment for Ful- 
ton, and he felt, looking with the eye of a practised mechanic, 
through the most prominent defects of his machinery, that he 
had at last accomplished that triumph in the application of 
steam, which had hitherto been so industriously, and yet so 
ineflectually sought for by others. One of the defects of his 
vessel was the depth which the buckets of his wheels pene- 
trated into the water. The boat had not long been under way 
when he caused her to be stopped, in order to curtail their 
width, which produced an increase of speed very manifest to 
all on board. The result of this trial trip was satisfactory to 
all except Fulton, who had been led from his hydromanic cal- 
culations, to believe that a much greater speed could be at- 
tained than he was enabled to procure for the Clermont, un- 
der the fullest pressure of steam he thought safe to put upon 
her. 

This boat, after some additional alterations, made a trip on 



TRIP TO ALBANY. 207 



the Hudson river to Albany and back, at an average running 
speed of five miles an hour. Fulton's opinion of this trip is 
preserved in a cautious communication made to his friend 
Barlow on the subject, and which is more worthy of note, be- 
cause it was made to a zealous well wisher of himself and his 
undertaking, with no probable intention of publicity. 

" My steamboat voyage to Albany and back, has turned 
out rather more favorable than I had calculated. The distance 
from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles. I 
ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a 
light breeze against mc the whole way, both going and com- 
ing, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power 
of the steam engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners 
beating to windward, and parted with them as if they had 
been at anchor. 

" The power of propelling boats by steam, is now fully 
proved. The morning I left New York, there were not per- 
haps thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat 
would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility, and 
while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded 
with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This 
is the way in which ignorant men compliment what they call 
philosophers and projectors. 

" Having employed much time, money and zeal, in ac- 
complishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great plea- 
sure, to see it fully answer my expectations. It will give a 
cheap and quick conveyance to the merchandise on the Mis- 
sissippi, Missouri and other grand rivers which are now lay- 
ing open their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen, 
and although the prospect of personal emolument has been 



208 FULTON. 

some inducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in 
reflecting on the immense advantage that my country will de- 
rive from the invention." 

Fulton's attention at this time was turned to the rapid 
streams which watered the valley of the Mississippi, and 
more especially to the great father of waters itself, as the field 
of the future successful operation of steamboat navigation, and 
it was a matter of great question whether with its costly 
machinery and constantly occurring expense, the steamboat 
could fairly enter into competition with the sail vessels of the 
Atlantic coast, and the rivers which flowed into it. The wa- 
ters of the turbulent streams that found their outlet into the 
Gulf of Mexico, are carried downward with an impetuosity 
that totally precludes the use of the ordinary sail vessels, and 
it was then, and until within a short period, continued to be, 
the practice of those living in the upper western states, to 
build very slight flat boats, that could readily be converted 
into lumber, and after freighting them with their various kinds 
of produce, to allow them to float downward with the current, 
and after disposing of the produce at New Orleans, to sell 
them for building materials, and return homeward across the 
country, rather than to attempt to stem the rapid current of 
the rivers. These streams, by defying the power of sail ves- 
sels, seemed admirably adapted to develop the problem of 
steam navigation, and it is not singular that Fulton's mind 
should have been directed to them instead of the placid wa- 
ters of the Atlantic slope, already whitened by a fleet of in- 
numerable sail vessels. Be this as it may, the destination of 
the Clermont was soon changed, and it became a regular 
packet on the Hudson river, between New York and Albany, 



MR. STEVENS'S SEA TRIP. 209 



and met from the first, notwithstanding a number of minor 
accidents, incident on the rude state of this species of navi- 
gation, with a liberal share of patronage, especially as a pas- 
senger boat. 

The practicability of steam navigation being thus deter- 
mined, Fulton was not long permitted to enjoy its benefits 
without rivalry. Mr. Stevens, to whom allusion has hereto- 

NoTE. — M. Arago, whose opinions on all scientific matters arc entitled to 
the most profound respect, gives the following resume of his enquiries into 
this subject : 

" Que M. Perier est le premier qui ait construit un bateau a vapeur, en 
1775, (un ouvrage de M. Ducrest, imprini6 en 1777 renferme la discussion 
des experiences auxquclles cet ing^nieur avait assiste : leur date est ainsi con- 
statce authentiquement.) 

" Que des essais sur une plus grande echelle furent faits en 1778, a. Baumc- 
les- Dames, par M. le marquis do Jouffroy. 

" Qu'en 1781, M. de Jouffroy, passant de I'expgrience a I'ex^cution dtablit 
r<5ellement sur la Saone un grand bateau du m6me genre qui n'avait pas 
moins de 46 metres de long, et de 4,5 metres de large. 

" Que le ministere d'alors adressa a, 1' Academic des Sciences, en 1783, le 
procfes-verbal des r^sultats favorablcs donnds par ce bateau, dans la vue de 
decider si M. de Jouffroy avait droit au privilege exclusif qu'il reclamait. 
(M. M. Borda et Perier furent nommds comraissaires.) 

" Que les essais faits en Angleterre par M. Miller, Lord Stanhope et M. 
Symington, sont d' une date bien posterieure ; car les premiers doivent 
etre rapport^s a I'annde 1791, ceux de Lord Stanhope a 1795, et I'experi- 
ence faite par Symington dans un canal d'ficosse a I'ann^e 1801. 

"Qu'enfin les tentatives de M. M. Livingston et Fulton, a Paris, n'etant 
que de 1803, elles pourraient d'autant moins leur donner des titres a I'inveu- 
tion, que Fulton avait eu en Angleterre une connaissance ddtaillde des essais 
de M, M. Miller et Symington, et que plusieurs de ses compatriotcs, M. 
Fitch, entre autres, s'etaient livr^s sur cet objet a des experiences publiqucs 
dbs I'ann^e 1786. Disons toutefois, quelle qu'en puisse etre la cause, que le 
premier bateau a vapeur auquel on n'ait pas renonc6 apres I'avoir essay(^ ; 
le premier qui ait etd appliqu^ au transport des hommes et des marchandises, 
est celui que Fulton construisit a New York en 1807, et qui fit le voyage de 
cette ville a Albany. En Angleterre, le premier bateau a. vapeur qu'on y 
ait vu en activite pour les besoins du commerce et des voyageurs date de 
1812, seulement; il naviguait sur la Clyde et s'appelait la Comete. En 1813, 
il en existait un second qui faisait la traversee de Yarmouth a Norwich." 

27 



210 1'' U L T N . 

I'oic I)t'(Mi iiKulc lis an i'X|)(>ritn(>nlcr in slcnni, had a boat nearly 
rciuly at Ww lime ol' Fulton's oxp(uiin(inl, wliich soon followed 
the (■[(Minoiil in(o the water. As Fulton had already a nio- 
ui)])()ly ol' the Hudson, Stevens took his vessel by sea into 
the Delaware, where it became a passenger boat. However 
much is due to Fulton, it is but an act of justice to say, that 
next to him Stevens has rendered more important service in 
perfecting the models of steamboats, and increasing their 
spiHMl, than any olUvr person, eitlier at home or abroad, con- 
nected witii early stean\ navigation. 

We have h(M'etol\)re had occasion to remark that Fulton's 
niiiul was clivi(l(>d helween his torpedo scheme, and that of 
steamboat navigation, in the latter of which we have followed 
him until fairly alloat, and a})parently in full tide of success- 
ful op(!ration. JJut during all the excitement attendant on the 
superintendence of his steamboat, he never, for an instant, 
lost sight of llu> lor[)ecIo \vlu)se development the critical })o- 
sition of our maritime allairs seemed highly to favor. 

" The condition of the navy maybe said to have been nega- 
tive at the period of whieh we are now writing, for while all 
who relleeted seriously on the subject, felt the necessity of 
greatly increasing this branch of national defence, nothing 
clhcient was attempted, or apparently contemplated. Ships 
of the line, without which it would be impossible to prevent 
any of evcMi the secondary maritime states of FiUroj>e from 
blockading the ports of this country, were now scarcely nuMi- 
tioned, and the materials that had been collected for that object 
in ISOO, were rapidly disappearing for the purposes of repairs 
and re-consliiu-tion. it is indeed, dillieult to imagine a j)olicy 
as short sighleil and li'ehie, as (hat ])ursued by congress at 



C U N 1) I T I N V T 11 K N A V Y. 211 



this particular jimcturc. With political relations that wore 
never tree IVtini the appearances of hoslililies, a trade that 
covered all Ihe seas of (he Uiiown world, :iiul an e\peri(MH'(> 
lliat was replel(! with lessons on (lu^ lUM-essily of repcllinL;' 
outr;i<;'es by force, this great interest was trealcnl with a ne- 
glect thai approached latuity. To add to this oversight, and 
to increase Ihe desponilency of the service as well as of all 
those whose views extended to the Inrllier nec(>ssi(ies of th(> 
country, the government ap[)ears to have adopted, in con- 
nexion with the defence of the harbors, b;iys and sounds of 
the coast, a plan that was singularly a(la|il(M! to bi-eaUing down 
the high toiu^ that (he navy hail accpiircd in its riH'ent e\|)eri- 
encc. This [)lan, which has [)een generally known as the 
" gun boat policy," originated as far back as the year ISO!}, 
(hough it did not beconu^ of sulliciiMit moment to be particu- 
larly uolic(Ml until the time at wirudi w'c ha,v(> now arrived in 
the regular order of evcMits. 

" An (nent soon occurred that not only stimulated Ibis policy, 
but which iiuluced (lie govciiinu'nl (o resort (o n(>w nu-asiu'es 
to prot(ict the coun(ry, sonu; of which were as (pu'slionable 
as they were novel. A few shij)s had been kept in (he iVled- 
iterrancan, as stated, and it is worthy of being noted, that, 
with a coujnierce (hat in 1S07 employed 1,200,000 tons of 
sliip|iiiig, (his was the only foreign station on wliicli an 
American cruiser was ever seen ! Neither was therc^ any 
])roper honu^ squadron, iu)twithstatuling the constant com- 
plaints that were made of the wrongs inllicted by tli(! I'lnglisli 
and French cruisers, particularly tin; former, at the; very 
mouths of the harbors of the country." * 

* Coopor's Naval Iliatory, vol. 2, p. 8. 



212 FULTON. [1807. 

While the navy was in the condition above described, the 
frigate Chesapeake was ordered to be put in commission, in 
order to relieve the flag ship Constitution, on the Mediterra- 
nean station, under the command of Commodore James Bar- 
ron, who was ordered to the command of the squadron, and 
Captain Charles Gordon, master commandant. 

About May, 1807, while she was lying at the navy yard at 
Washington, the government were notified by the English 
minister, that three men who had deserted from the ship 
Mclampus, had enlisted as a part of the Chesapeake's crew, 
and a demand was made for their restoration. Captain Gordon 
instituted an enquiry into the matter, under an order to that 
effect, from the navy department, which resulted in eliciting 
the fact that the three seamen claimed by the British govern- 
ment were actually deserters, but that they claimed to have 
been impressed Americans, who had seized the first oppor- 
tunity to escape. These facts were represented to the Eng- 
lish minister, who seemed satisfied with the report. 

On the 22d of June, the Chesapeake left Hampton Roads, 
bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Barron. On the after- 
noon of tlie same day the Leopard, a small two decker, 
mounting 5Q guns, which had just joined the English squad- 
ron, and had preceded the Chesapeake in her passage to sea, 
wore round when about one mile to the windward, and bore 
down upon her weather quarter, when she informed the Ches- 
apeake that she had despatches for the Commodore. Both 
vessels came to, and a boat from the Leopard, with an officer 
on board, boarded the Chesapeake. ^The British officer bore 
a requisition from Vice-Admiral Berkley, requiring the com- 



tEt. 43.] ATTACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE. 213 

mander of the Chesapeake to allow a search to be made for 
deserters, to which Commodore Barron gave a negative reply. 

On the return of the Leopard's boat with the American 
commander's reply, a shot was fired from the Leopard ahead 
of the Chesapeake, which was immediately followed by an 
entire broadside. The Chesapeake not anticipating such a 
result, was entirely unprepared, and bore the fire of the 
Leopard for twelve or fifteen minutes without being able to 
return a single shot. Her colors were then lowered, and a 
shot was fired from her at the moment. The three men who 
had deserted from the Mclampus, and one from the Halifax, 
were re-captured and carried to the Leopard. 

This attack on the Chesapeake, while it created a universal 
feeling of indignation, clearly demonstrated the inefficiency of 
the government to protect itself from insults and injury, even 
within sight of its very harbors. Fulton proposed to remedy 
this deficiency by means of his torpedoes, and proposed to 
the government personally to superintend the protection of 
its entire line of coast, if it would accept of his services. 
Others had not the same confidence in his means of defence 
as himself, and whilst the executive branch of the public ser- 
vice expressed a willingness to give his torpedoes a fair trijil, 
we do not find that they entered into any calculations of de- 
fence, projected by either department, although the gun boats 
proved equally futile and unworthy of confidence. 

In order to inspire the public confidence, Fulton in August, 
1807, announced that he would blow up the hulk of a large 
brig in the harbor of New York. This announcement drew 
together a large crowd of spectators, who waited for several 
hours after the time appointed for the explosion to take place, 



214 FULTON. [1808. 

in momentary expectation of its occurrence, and were at last 
beginning slowly to disperse, when a dense column of water, 
flame and fragments, attended with a loud explosion, an- 
nounced the success of his experiment. " The brig was an- 
chored, the torpedoes prepared and put into the water in the 
manner before described (in the case of the Dorothea;) the 
tide drove them under the brig near her keel, but in conse- 
quence of the locks turning downwards, the powder fell out 
of the pans, and they both missed fire. This discovery of an 
error in the manner of fixing locks to a torpedo had been cor- 
rected. On the second attempt the torpedo missed the brig, 
the explosion took place about one hundred yards from her, 
and threw up a column of water ten feet in diameter, sixty or 
seventy feet high. On the third attempt, she was blown up ; 
the effect and result were much the same as that of the Doro- 
thea before described." 

In the early part of 1808, he had two additional steamboats, 
whose building he had superintended the previous year, ready 
to be placed on their lines. The Raritan was intended to 
navigate the Raritan river, and the Car of Neptune, the Hud- 
son. Both of these vessels Avere built at the yard of Charles 
Bj'own, at New York, and the latter was considerabl}' larger 
than the two heretofore built, having a tonnage of 295 tons, 
and was of the following dimensions : length, 175 feet, depth, 
8 feet, and width, 24 feet. Her engine had 4 foot 4 inches 
stroke, and her water Avheel was 16 foot in diameter, with 2 foot 
4 inches dip of paddle. The Raritan was of 120 tons burden. 

Whilst at Washington during the autumn of 1808, he pre- 
pared the specifications for his first application for a patent for 
" new and useful improvements in steamboats." The schedule 



i^T. 43.] SPECIFICATIONS OF PATENT. 215 

that accompanies this application is dated January 1st, 1809, 
at Kalorama, the exceedingly picturesque and beautiful resi- 
dence of his friend Barlow, situated on the undulating shore 
of Rock Creek, in the immediate vicinage of Washington, and 
thus details his " discoveries, inventions and imjDrovements 
on steamboats :" 

"To obtain the power for driving the boat, I make use of 
Messrs. Bolton & Watt's steam engine, but instead of a beam 
above the cylinder, I have a triangular cast iron beam on each 
side of it, and near the bottom of the boat the base of the tri- 
angle is seven feet long; in the centre of the base, a perpen- 
dicular is raised three feet six inches high, which is the vertex 
of the triangle ; the two triangles are fixed on one strong iron 
shaft, so that they play together. On the top of the piston 
rod there is a tee piece or strong iron bar which moves in 
guides at each side of the cylinder ; from each end of the tee 
piece, and passing down by the sides of the cylinder, is a 
strong bar of forged iron, called a shackle, which is connected 
by a shackle pin to the end of the beam, thus the end of the 
beam moves through a curve in a perpendicular direction, and 
its vertex moves through a curve in a horizontal direction ; 
the other end of the triangle is cast with a weight of iron suf- 
ficient to balance the weight of the piston, and all the weight 
on the opposite side of the fulcrum, or centre of the base 
line. From the vertex of each triangle, a shackle, from six 
to eight feet long, is connected with a crank which is fixed 
on each side of the propeller wheels ; close to each crank is 
a cast iron wheel about four feet six inches diameter, each 
driving a pinion two feet three inches diameter; these two 
pinions are on one shaft, in the centre of which is a fly wheel 



216 FULTON. [1808. 

ten feet diameter ; tlie movement for the air pump is taken 
from the base line of the beam, and twenty-one inches from 
the fulcrum. The condensing water comes through the sides 
or bottom of the boat by a pipe, which enters the condenser, 
and is regulated by a cock or valve. The hot well, the for- 
cing pump, to replenish the boiler, the steam gauge, the safety 
valve, the float in the boiler, to regulate the quantity of wa- 
ter, the plug tree and hand gear, &c., are so familiar to all 
persons acquainted with the steam engine, and may be ar- 
ranged in such a variety of ways, as not to require a descrip- 
tion. I prefer a propelling wheel or wheels, to take the pur- 
chase on the water ; they may be from eight to twenty feet 
diameter, and divided into any number of equal parts, from 
three to twenty ; each wheel may have from three to twenty 
propellers, but a wheel or wheels from twelve to fifteen feet 
diameter each, with from eight to twelve propellers, will be 
found to apply to the engine to great advantage. Hitherto 
I have placed a propelling wheel on each side of the boat, 
with a wheel guard or frame outside of each of them for pro- 
tection. A propelling wheel or wheels, may however, be 
placed behind the boat, or in the centre, between the con- 
necting boats. To give room for the machinery, passengers, 
or merchandise, I build my boats five or more times as long 
as their extreme breadth at the water line. The extreme 
breadth may be one-third from her bow, or in the middle, in 
which case the water line will form two equal segments of a 
circle united at the ends. To diminish the plus and minus 
pressure, I make the bow and stern sharped to angles of at 
least ()0 degrees, and that the boat may draw as little water as 
possible, I build it flat, or nearly so, on the bottom. Having 



^T. 45.] TORPEDO SCHEME. 217 

mentioned the essential component parts of a steamboat, and 
its mechanism, its successful construction and velocity will 
depend, 

First, — On an accurate knowledge of her total resistance, 
while running one, two, three, four, five or six miles an hour, 
in still water. 

Second, — On a knowledge of the diameter of the cylinder, 
strength of the steam, and velocity of the piston, to over- 
come the resistance of a given boat while running one two, 
three, four, five or six miles an hour, in still water. 

Third, — On a knowledge of the square feet or inches which 
each propeller should have, and the velocity it should run to 
drive a given boat one, two, three, four, five or six miles an 
hour through still water. It is a knowledge of these propor- 
tions and velocities, which is the most important part of my 
discovery, on the improvement of steamboats." 

Immediately after filing these specifications with the gov- 
ernment, he "had the pleasure of exhibiting at Kalorama, to 
Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and a party of gentleman from 
the Senate and House of Representatives, some experiments 
and details on torpedo defence and attack."* 

The party invited by Barlow to witness these experiments, 
and partake of his hospitality, appeared to be so favorably 
impressed, that Fulton was induced to present, in the form of a 
pamphlet with five engravings, a description of his system, to 
the President and congress. This pamphlet was issued during 
the same year, but no definitive action appears to have been 
taken on the subject before the 26th of February, 1810, 
when Mr. Bradley, from a select committee of the Senate, 
* Fulton's use of the Torpedo. 

28 



218 FULTON. [1810. 

appointed to inquire into the expediency of employing the tor- 
pedo, made a report recommending the appropriation of a 
small sum of money to be placed at the disposal of the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, "to enable him to ascertain with precision, 
how far it might be expedient" to employ it. This committee, 
in their report, remark that " if it can be demonstrated by 
actual experiments, that the theory is susceptible of sure 
practical operation, it certainly will merit the attention of 
every government who at present does not exercise, or does 
not hereafter expect to exercise, an undue influence over the 
seas," manifesting a disposition to do full justice to Fulton, 
and at the same time to avail themselves of any merit the 
torpedo might be found to possess. 

On the 30th of March, 1810, an act was passed, placing 
five thousand dollars at the disposal of the Secretary of the 
Navy, to "test the practical use of the torpedo." 

The Secretary of the Navy appointed a committee for the 
most part of Fulton's personal friends, to be present at the ex- 
periments intended to be made by him in the harbor of New 
York. Commodore Rogers, and Captain Chauncey, of the 
Navy, were likewise " requested to attend the experiments, 
and conduct the defence against the torpedo." 

The letters notifying the members of the committee of their 
appointment, were dated May, 4th, 1810, but the experiments 
did not take place until the 21st of September, and were 
continued to the 1st of November, 1810. 

The following extract from Commodore Rogers's Journal, 
which was presented to the House df Representatives, Feb- 
ruary 14th, 1811, as a part of the proceedings in the case, 
details the results of the experiments : 



^T. 45.] COMMODORE ROGERS'S JOURNAL. 219 

" September 21, 1810. — At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, 
Captain Chauncey, of the Navy, and myself, accompanied by 
Colonel Wharton, according to appointment, met at the city 
hotel, Broadway, Mr. Fulton and a committee appointed by 
the Honorable Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, con- 
sisting of Chancellor Livingston, Governor Lewis, C. D. Col- 
den, Esq., Mr. Garnett, Doctor Kemp, and Colonel J. Wil- 
liams, (Mr. Oliver Wolcott, late Secretary of the Treasur}^, a 
member, being absent,) to investigate and report their opinions 
of the principles, as well as to demonstrate^ by such experi- 
ments as Mr. Fulton might advise, the efficacy of (as engines 
of national offensive and defensive war,) certain sub-marine pro- 
jects published by him, under the title of the " Torpedo War," 
which he had proposed to congress as being well calculated 
to supersede the necessity of a navy. And to enable the 
projector to prove by actual experiment the efficiency of his 
•scheme, a law was passed in February, 1810, appropriating 
five thousand dollars to the purpose. The committee all being 
present, with the exception of Mr. Wolcott, at noon Mr. Ful- 
ton opened the subject by placing a torpedo lock on the table ; 
and after some preliminary observations relative to the pro- 
gress and improvements in various arts and sciences, he 
quoted a few paragraphs from his book, entitled " Torpedo 
War," to enable him to explain more forcibly the affinity of 
his preceding remarks to the subject then before the com- 
mittee. He expressed a desire that I would have the frigate 
President transported from the North river (w^here she was 
then lying) to the East river, contiguous to the navy yard, for 
the purpose of making an experiment. I asked Mi Fulton if the 
experiments could not as well be made on the North river. 



220 FULTON [1810. 

and observed, that the President was undergoing some repairs 
in her rigging, preparing to paint, &c.; consequently she could 
not conveniently be removed. He observed that he preferred 
the East river, on account of its contiguity to the navy yard ; 
as at the yard, he would (previous to the experiments,) be 
aiForded with the means of making the necessary arrange- 
ments with his machinery, as well as with the boats and men, 
which might be required. 

" The United States brig Argus was, at this time lying in the 
East river, near the navy yard, which enabled me to offer her 
for his accommodation ; which he having accepted, the com- 
mittee (with the exception of Mr. Wolcott, an absent mem- 
ber, and with the concurrence of Mr. Fulton,) unanimously 
resolved that the experiments should accordingly be com- 
menced on the 24th instant, with blank torpedoes, on the 
United States brig Argus ; and that such defence should be 
made by her as a vessel of war was capable of, without the 
use of her guns, or any other active force of similar kind. 

" The time and mode of experimenting being now determined 
on, Mr. Fulton placed a torpedo on the table, and observed 
that it was the kind with which he should commence his es- 
says on the Argus. 

" This kind of torpedo, it will be observed, is intended to be 
applied to a vessel's bottom, from the bowsprit of a torpedo 
boat, by the aid of a long pole, suspended by a swivel on the 
end of the bowsprit, so nearly on a balance that a man in the 
bow of the boat can elevate or depress the torpedo with his 
right hand, and at the same time fire it, by pulling a line 
which he holds in his left. 

" Mr. Fulton having fully explained the principles of the be- 



^Et. 45.] TORPEDO EXPERIMENTS. 221 

fore described torpedo, the committee adjourned to meet on 
the 24th instant, for the purpose of commencing the experi- 
ments, as had been previously resolved. 

" September 22. — On this day, Mr. Fulton, (having pre- 
viously prepared a torpedo boat) had various torpedoes and 
apparatus transported to the navy yard, for the purpose of 
essaying with on the Argus, consisting of five different kinds, 
as also a combination of various different machines, viz : a 
hook, chisel and gun, intended for the purpose of cutting off 
cables under water. 

" September 24th. — On this day, with the advice of Captain 
Chauncey, I gave Lieutenant Lawrence (commander of the 
Argus) directions to prepare his vessel in a manner to prevent 
the application of torpedoes under her bottom, and which he 
accordingly did, with nothing more than simply her own 
spare studding-sail booms, nine fire grapnels, a few j^egs of 
kentledge, and the President's splinter net. 

" After the Argus was thus prepared for the experiments, 
several thousands of the citizens of New York assembled at 
Corlear's Hook, (opposite the navy yard) for the purpose of 
witnessing the result of Mr. Fulton's operations on her; but 
the weather proving somewhat unfavorable, and the com- 
mittee, in consequence, having sent to notify that they would 
not attend on this day, a boat was despatched to inform the 
people collected there that no experiments would be made 
before the next day. 

" It now appearing that Mr. Fulton had given up the inten- 
tion of experimenting on the Argus, I mentioned to the com- 
mittee that she was then under sailing orders, and that if Mr. 
Fulton did not intend to make any essays on her, I would 



222 FULTON. [1810. 

order her to prepare for sea, and which I should have done, 
had he not at the time, expressed a desire that she might be 
detained a few days longer, as it was probable (as he said) 
that he might, in a very short time, be prepared to make some 
experiments on her. 

" The committee now adjourned to meet on the 28lh instant. 

"Mr. Fulton now having expressed doubts whether the 
preparations made on the Argus could be effected with any 
reasonable degree of facility, the committee proposed that 
she should be got under weigh, and that the preparations then 
made on her should be displaced, which being done, that she 
should be brought to an anchor again, and the same prepara- 
tions re-placed, in order to prove the facility with which 
such an operation could be performed. This proposal Avas 
accordingly assented to ; but the rudder of the Argus being 
at the linu^ on shore, and under repair, the performance was 
necessarily postponed, to take place on the 1st of October, on 
North river. 

" October 1st. — Owing to calm weather during the two pre- 
ceding days, the Argus was not removed into the North river, 
as had been determined on the 28th ultimo ; the committee, 
however, not thinking it then necessary that she should be 
removed for the purpose of performing the experiments which 
at their last nu^ctiug, had been resolved on, agreed that they 
should be made where she then lay, in East river, and which 
was accordingly complied with, Avhen to the astonishment of 
those who had entertained any doubts of the facility with 

Note.— It will be ivcolUvtoil tluit IMr. Fulton addiv.^srd a lottor to the 
members of Congress, wlio voteil in fjivor ol' the torpedo bill, dated April 
15th, ISIO, in which he assured thcni that nets, booms, &c., instead of ob- 
structing', would facilitate his operations. 



^T. 46.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 223 

which a vessel could be so prepared after she had been dis- 
mantled of such preparations, the same were seen re-placed 
in less than fifteen minutes. 

"Mr. Fulton, having now candidly acknowledged, (and that 
too, in a manner much to his credit,) that his want of nautical 
information had led him into many errors ; at the same time, 
all parties wishing to see the project thoroughly tested, the 
committee adjourned to meet on the 29th instant, in order that 
he might be atlbrded suflicient time to make experiments on 
the improvements which he had suggested, as being necessary 
to the perfecting of his torpedoes, and the manner of applying 
them. Therefore, all that has yet been proved relative to this 
description of torpedoes, I consider in amount as nothing, 
when compared with the object for which it was constructed, 
and even if it was capable of being made as perfect as the 
projector has described in his book, entitled " Torpedo War," 
(but which I utterly deny) it can never be of any important 
consequence, as by the aid of a very simple piece of ma- 
chinery, in form like the back-bone of a fish, (and which 
would naturally suggest itself as a preventive) its effect may, 
without the question of a doubt, be rendered harmless." 

The majority of the committee, among whom was his inti- 
mate friend and future biographer. Golden, made a report on 
the 22d of January, 1811, to th(^ Secretary of the Navy, like- 
wise submitted to the House, which says : 

" It seems to be generally admitted, that a ship may be de- 
stroyed by sub-marine explosions, but whether Mr. Fulton's 
system can be rendered practically useful, must, as we con- 
ceive, depend on future discoveries and improvements. The 
only opinion which we venture, at this time, to express with 



224 FULTON. [1811. 

any degree of confidence, is that this system is at present too 
imperfectly demonstrated to justify the government in relying 
on it as a means of publie dcfenc(\" 

Mr. I'^illoii addressed a letter from Kalorama, on the first 
of February, ISll, to the Secretary of the Navy, as a re- 
joinder to CViinmodore Rogers's Journal, and thus terminated, 
and forever, the connexion of the government with the torpedo. 

It must he admitted that no invention ever had a fairer or 
more iiii[);irl!al trinl than that of the torpedo. Three separate 
governmei\ts had at dillerent times, made aj)j)roj)riations of 
money to test its value, and had referred it to committees of 
distinguished men, who were disposed to award a full meed 
of nnu'lt to th(> inviMitor; l)(>sides, it was manifestly the in- 
terest, as we have already seen, of the American government 
that it siiould succeed, yet, after the repeated trials afforded 
to it, as in the case of the American commission, aided by the 
warmest ties of personal friendshi]), it w'as unequivocally 
condemned. 

Fulton obtained a second patent for liis inventions iii steam- 
boats, on the 9th of February, 1811. Accompanying the ap- 
j)licatioii lor this patent, he ])reseiiled a seheduk' drawn up 
with great care, including the claim contained in his former 
ojie, and additional matter, inserted with a view to enable 
him successfully to enter into that litigation which an innova- 
tion already eoiumeneed on his rights, seemed to deniaud of 
him. 

The first A)rmidal)Ie o])j)osition was that of a company, who 
sought til propel their boats by a pendulum movement, but 
liiidiiig this iusuliieieiil, they resorted to steam, making sueli 
slight alterations in Fulton's nu)de as barely to escape an in- 



.Ex. 49.] INJUNCTION GRANTED, 



225 



fringement of the letter, altl.Dugh they retained the spirit of 
his designs. 

For tlie purjiose of arresting this opposition, Livingston and 
Fulton found it necessary to make an appeal to tlie Clian- 
cellor, to grant an injunction against the company, who were 
represented in (his suit under the ai)pelhilion of Van Ingen 
and others. The ChauceHor, after nuicli cUdiberation, refused 
to grant tlie injunction. 

From this decision of the Chancellor, an appeal was taken 
in the winter of 1S12, t.i the Court of lOrrors, composed of (he 
mend)ers of the State Senate, and the live judges of tlie Su- 
preme Court. The defence set up in opposition to Fulton, 
was that the laws granting and securijig this exclusive right, 
were unconstitutioiuil : 

1st. J3ecause they interfered witli the powers of Congress 
to regulate patents. 

2d. Because they interfered with the regulations of com- 
merce. 

The opinion of Judges Yeates and Thompson, and Chief 
Justice Kent, which are very able and lucid legal documents, 
all coincided in reversing the decree of the Cliancellor, which 
the court proceeded unanimously to do, and granted the in- 
junction demanded. 

This was but the beginning of a series of law suits, which 
among his other multitudinous occui)ations, pressed upon him, 
and conti.iued to prove a source of harassnient and perplexity 
up to the last moment of his life. As an exaniiiiation of 
these would lead mucli more into detail than it is our purpose 
to enter, we shall dismiss them, as possessing minor interest 
for the general reader. 
29 



226 FULTON. [1814. 

Early in the year of 1814, he exhibited to a committee of 
the most influential citizens of New York, a plan for a steam 
frigate, armed with a strong battery, and supplied with fur- 
naces for red-hot shot. As to the practicability of his plans, 
Commodores Decatur and Perry, and Captains Evans, Biddle, 
Warrington and Lewis, after a careful examination, did not 
entertain a doubt. Fortified by such high authority, this 
committee, who were denominated the coast and harbor de- 
fence committee, feeling great alarm at the exposed situation 
of the harbor of New York, with the ships of the most pow- 
erful navy in the world hovering over it in a hostile attitude, 
addressed an urgent appeal to congress, praying that imme- 
diate means might be taken to construct a frigate according 
to Mr. Fulton's plan, and under his superintendence. Con- 
gress responded to the memorialists, by passing a law in 
March, 1814, appropriating money under the direction of the 
President, for the building and armament of one or more of the 
frigates asked for by the New York committee. 

Fulton, without whose great skill in such matters, the com- 
mittee believed the frigate could not be built, was selected to 
superintend its construction, under the advice of a committee 
composed of General Dearborn, Col. Henry Rutgers, Oliver 
Wolcott, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell and Thomas Morris. The 
keel of this vessel was laid on the 20th of June, 1814, and 
such was the zeal with which it was prosecuted, that notwith- 
standing the strict blockade maintained by the enemy of the 
harbor, and the consequent difficulty in obtaining the mate- 
rials necessary for its construction, it was passed from the 
stocks into the water on the 29th of the following October, 



JEt. bO.] ILLNE SS — DEATH. 227 

amid a vast concourse of spectators, who had assembled to 
witness the launch. 

In February of the following year, (1815,) Fulton visited 
Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, as a witness, on the pe- 
tition of John R. Livingston, to the Legislature, to rescind a 
law previously passed, which prevented a steamboat owned 
by him from making her accustomed trips between New York 
and New Jersey. 

Whilst at Trenton, his attendance on the legislature, and 
exposure to exceedingly inclement weather, induced a cold, 
which a natural predisposition rendered more susceptible, by 
two recent attacks of a similar character, soon fixed upon the 
lungs. An anxiety to return to his family and the multitu- 
dinous occupations that engrossed his thoughts, induced him 
to set out for New York at a time when prudence dictated a 
careful confinement to his apartment, and a rigid observance 
of medical regimen. 

On reaching Paulus Hook, the Hudson was found partly 
closed with ice, and a detention of some hours occurred in 
procuring a boat to cross the river, which Fulton spent in 
visiting the works of Brown & Co., and examining the boats 
which were undergoing repairs preparatory to their use the 
following season. After reaching that part of the river which 
was frozen over, he left the boat in company with his friends, 
John R. Livingston, Sampson and Emmet, to cross over the 
ice on foot. They had not proceeded far before Mr. Emmet 
fell through the ice, and was placed in a situation of great 
peril. Fulton in attempting his rescue became quite wet, and 
when he reached his house, his cold had increased to such an 
extent he was scarcely able to articulate 



228 FULTON. 

Confinement to his bed for two or three days, so moderated 
the intensity of the symptoms under which he was laboring, 
that he ventured to visit the Paulus Hook works, to inspect 
the steam frigate, about which he was particularly anxious. 
This unfortunate visit lighted up anew all the symptoms of 
the disease with an increased violence, which conjoined to 
the debility occasioned by his recent prostration, foiled all the 
skill of his medical advisers, and rapidly terminated in death. 

The distinguished Dr. Hosack, who was called to render 
his aid late in the disease, says : " A renewal of the in- 
flammation of his lungs took place, followed by a large and 
copious expectoration, pai'tly purulent and in part san- 
guineous; partial relief was obtained, and some faint pros- 
pect of recovery appeared, but about six days before his 
death, the inflammation transferred itself from the windpipe 
and lungs to the external parts of the neck and lower jaw ; a 
tumor took place, apparentl}"^ of the right parotid gland, ex- 
hibiting the circumscribed appearance of mumps, but it soon 
diflused itself, involving all the integuments extending from 
that gland to the clavicle, in a high degree of erysipelatous 
inflammation. 

" All the usual applications Avere resorted to for the purpose 
of allaying this tumor and inflammation, but without success; 
his breathing became more oppressed, and his powers rapidly 
declined: — at that period, between eleven and twelve o'clock, 
of the night of the 2'2d of February, T was requested to visit 
him in consultation. 

" Upon entering the room, he immediately extended to- 
w^ards me his hand, thereby manifesting the yet undisturbed 
state of his intellect, although he was then nearly deprived of 



CLAIMS ON MANKIND. 229 



the power of speech. Upon approaching his bedside, I at 
once perceived his situation to be hopeless — the feeble state 
of his pulse, — the hurried and labored respirations, — his livid 
and anxious countenance — all announced his approaching dis- 
solution, and that nothing could be added to what had already 
been done by his medical friends then in attendance. The 
morning of the succeeding day closed his important life." 

In the narration of the facts connected with steam navitra- 
tion we have impartially given, we have pretty clearly 
demonstrated that Fulton was not entitled to credit as the in- 
ventor of steam, or of its application to the purposes of navi- 
gation ; that even in the apparatus which he made use of, 
there was nothing strikingly peculiar, or new ; and that in com- 
mon with others of a similar character of mind, in dilfcrent 
parts of the world, he was engaged in solving a problem, wliose 
ultimate result was declared by more than one indubitable 
evidence. Credit is therefore not due to him for any of 
these things, but for the patient, persevering, and enduring 
energy, which enabled him to prosecute, under the most ad- 
verse and disheartening circumstances, his favorite pursuit 
until it resulted in the complete triumph of ihe practical ap- 
plication of steam to the ordinary purposes of navigation. 

What influence this prnciical application of steam to navi- 
gation, has already produced, or what in the rapid develop- 
ments which a few years have brought to light, it is hereafter 
destined to produce on the fate of the human family, it is 
hardly safe to calculate. It has already converted the soli- 
tary Mississippi and its tributaries into busy peopled thorough- 
fares, crowded with life, and bearing upon their bosoms the 
products of twenty degrees of latitude ; it has claimed the 



230 FULTON. 

Atlantic as its element ; melted the frosts of Cape Horn ; 
waked the wilds of the Pacific ocean with its sonorous 
echoes, and brought the different nations of the earth in such 
close proximity as to compel them to feel the necessity of 
livins: in one common brotherhood. 



• CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 



The greater part of those who have filled important places 
among their fellow men, have evinced no small degree of anx- 
iety to have the record of their life transmitted to posterity, 
with as much of praise and as little of censure as the nature of 
the subject would allow. Chief Justice Marshall, in this re- 
spect, differed from most other men, for although fully con- 
scious of the possession of a high order of intellectual attain- 
ments, he neither sought occasion to display them, nor 
courted the admiration of those with whom he was associated. 
His whole life was spent in endeavoring to attain to a high 
order of excellence, yet not so much on account of the good 
opinion of mankind, as from an overweening desire to dis- 
charge to the uttermost the obligations imposed upon him by 
a sense of duty. These once discharged, he was willing to 
allow his reputation and reward to rest upon the act, without 
the garniture of praise to set it off, and hence he was indif- 
ferent to the collection of those materials necessary to prepare 
a minute and exact biography. 

Nor have his immediate descendants evinced a greater de- 
sire to rescue from oblivion the familiar incidents of his life ; 
and the materials composing his biography, are for the most 
part, collected from collateral sources, and not from the hearth- 
stone, around which they would naturally be supposed to 
cluster. 



232 MARSHALL 



The progenitors of Chief Justice Marshall, were from 
Wales. His grand-father, John Marshall, emigrated to Amer- 
ica about the year 1730, and settled in Westmoreland county, 
Virginia, where he married, and pursued the occupation of a 
planter. He had four sons and five daughters, of whom 
Thomas, the father of the Chief Justice, was the eldest, and 
inherited the patrimonial estate, said to have been of trifling 
value. He did not reside upon it, but changed his place of 
abode to Fauquair county, while yet young, and married Miss 
Mary Keith, a connexion of the family of Randolphs, then of 
great distinction, and a lady of excellent accomplishments 
and superior mind. 

John INIarshall, the eldest of fifteen children by this mar- 
riage, and the subject of this sketch, was born on the 24th of 
September, 1755. His boyhood, up to the age of fourteen, 
was passed on his father's plantation. His means of obtaining 
an education were exceedingly scanty, and this task necessa- 
rily devolved upon his father. 

He was fortunate in a parent, who although not originally 
possessed of a good education, had, by dint of close applica- 
tion, overcome the deficiences in some degree, of early youth, 
and maintained a respectable position among his acquaintances 
as a man of good sense, and some reading. As a practical 
surveyor, he had acquired a knowledge of mathematics and 
astronomy, and from taste was much inclined to general liter- 
ature and poetry. Young Marshall, under this tutorage, ob- 
tained the rudiments of his education, and acquired a fond- 
ness for poetical reading. Before the age of twelve he had 
made himself familiar with the writings of Shakspeare, Mil- 
ton, and many of the other classic English poets, and had 



MEANS OF EDUCATION. 233 



transcribed Pope's Essay on Man, much of which he quoted 
from memory. These were not conned over as tasks, but 
eagerly sought as sources of intense gratification, inspired by 
a deep sensibility and an enthusiastic and vigorous mind, 
aided by the enthusiasm of youth, and the delightful associa- 
tions of the dreamy, yet rugged landscape by which he was 
surrounded. 

At fourteen years of age, he was placed under the charge 
of Mr. Campbell, a clergyman, to be taught the Latin lan- 
guage. He remained with this gentleman but one year, 
during which he made fair progress in liis studies. Among 
his class-mates at this school, was President Monroe. After 
his return to Oakhill, he received one year's additional in- 
struction in Latin, from a Scottish clergj'man, named Thomp- 
son, who resided in his father's family, which with the edu- 
cation he had received from his parents, constituted the en- 
tire amount of instruction it was in liis power to obtain. 

With this slender instruction in Latin he was lel't to his 
own unaided resources, yet with no other assistance than 
that afforded by his books, he not only finished reading 
Horace and Livy, which ha had but just commenced, but 
made considerable progress in the attainment of a general 
knowledge of the Latin tongue, although his education in this 
particular was neither critical nor deep. 

The literature of his own tongue, in the attainment of 
whicli he was aided by the instruction and conversation of 
his father, became his favorite object of study, and moulded 
his mind into an attachment for its higher specimens, which 
continued through life. 

From early boyhood, he was passionately attached to ath- 
30 



234 MARSHALL 



letic exercises, and when not employed with his studies, 
spent his time in the open air, engaged in the excitement of 
field sports, or indulging in solitary musings amid the wild 
and fascinating scenery of his mountain home. 

The private history of Marshall, like that of almost every 
other personage of distinction, of the era in which he lived, 
was fashioned, in a great degree, by the stirring events that 
environed him. The year 1764, was remarkable for the gloom 
it cast over the North American colonies, and its conse- 
quences upon their future destiny. In the spring of that 
year, the English Parliament passed resolutions to levy a 
stamp duty, which were communicated by their agent to the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, who appointed a special com- 
mittee to prepare a remonstrance to parliament, and an ad- 
dress to the king. The resolutions reported expressed in 
strong terms the grounds on which the colonies claimed an 
exemption from taxation, and represented the act as burden- 
some and oppressive ; but the stunning effect at first produced 
upon the inhabitants of the colonies by this high-handed at- 
tempt to strip them of their liberties, and render them mere 
vassals to the British crown, was so overpowering as to ren- 
der their action indecisive and suppliant, rather than bold and 
determined. The Virginia resolutions, as they passed the 
house, partook of the former character, and in a tone of great 
condescension, portrayed the depressed financial condition of 
the colony, and the suffering the act would in all likelihood 
produce. The remonstrance was narrowed down to a most 
humble petition, and by the fear of the assembly, was like 
Franklin's article under the hands of the publisher of the 
Public Advertiser, "deprived of its teeth and claws." 



PATRICK HENRY. 235 



In the January of the following year, the passage of the 
stamp act, notwithstanding the appeals of the colonists, so far 
from arousing them to resistance, seemed to wither their last 
feeble hope and led them to look to submission under their 
injustice, as the only means left for them to pursue. Few 
were bold enough to harbor the thought of open resistance, 
and fewer still had the hardihood to express such a sentiment. 
Most persons looked to a change of policy in the home gov- 
ernment as the only means of escape from the tyranny of this 
act, and although this hope was uncertain, it presented the 
only one to lighten the gloomy prospect before them. A 
prospect darkened by the destruction of their constitution and 
the most sacred safeguards of their liberty. 

At this eventful moment Patrick Henry, fresh from his 
back woods home, clad in home-spun apparel, with an un- 
couth pronunciation and unpolished manners, appeared in the 
House of Burgesses as the champion for exemption from tax- 
ation, and by means of his wonderful powers as a statesman, 
and his majestic and masterly eloquence, succeeded in rein- 
spiring the drooping hearts of his countrymen, and rousing 
them to an energy of action which never flagged until the 
complete overthrow of the power which had attempted to op- 
press them, had been accomplished. He introduced a series 
of resolutions, five in number, animadverting upon the stamp 
act, which, after a stormy debate, in which he was oppo- 
sed by all the able leaders in the house, were passed by a 
single vote. 

"By these resolutions," says Jefferson, "and his manner 
sf upporting them, Mr. Henry took the lead out of the hands 
J those who had, theretofore, guided the proceedings of the 



236 MARSHALL. 



house, that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, and Ran- 
dolph." 

"It was indeed," adds Wirt, "the measure which raised 
him to the zenith of his glory. He had never before had a 
subject which entirely matched his genius, and was capable 
of drawing out the great powers of his mind. It was re- 
marked of him throughout his life, that his talents never 
failed to rise with the occasion, and in proportion with the re- 
sistance which he had to encounter. The nicet}'^ of the vote 
on his last resolution proves that this was not a time to hold 
in reserve any part of his forces. It was indeed, an Alpine 
passage, under circumstances even more unpropitious than 
those of Hannibal ; for he had to fight not only hand to hand, 
the powerful party who were already in possession of the 
heights, but at the same instant to cheer and animate the 
timid band of followers, that were trembling and fainting, and 
drawing back below him. It was an occasion that called upon 
him to put fortii all his strength, and he did i)ut it forth in 
such a manner as man never did before. The cords of argu- 
ment, with which his adversaries frequently flattered them- 
selves that they had bound him fast, became pack-threads in 
his hands. He burst them with as much ease as the unshorn 
Samson did the bands of the Philistines. He seized the pil- 
lars of the temple, shook them terribly, and seemed to threaten 
his opponents with ruin. It was an incessant storm of light- 
ning and thunder which struck tiiem aghast. The faint-hearted 
gathered courage from his countenance, and cowards became 
heroes while they gazed upon his exploits. 

" It was in the midst of this magnificent debate, while he 
was descanting on the tyranny of this obnoxious act, that he 



OPPOSITION TO THE STAMP ACT. 237 

exclaiified in a voice of thunder, and with the look of a god, 
' Ccesar had his Brutus — Charles the First his Cromwell — and 
George the Third' — (' Treason,' cried the Speaker — trea- 
son ! echoed from every part of the house. It was one of 
those trying moments which is decisive of character. Henry 
faltered not for an instant, but rising to a loftier attitude, 
and fixing on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire, 
he finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis) — ' may 
profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most 
of it.'" 

Patrick Henry left town the same evening on which he 
had delivered this speech, and the vote by which the fifth 
and strongest resolution was passed, was re-considered and 
negatived on the following day. The effect however of the 
resolution continued, and the torch which had been lighted 
by Henry continued to burn with a brighter and brighter 
flame, until before the close of the year it lighted up the 
whole continent, and men grown less timid, began to express 
themselves in a more open manner, of the injustice and the 
means of redress. At the time when these resolutions were 
passed in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Marshall was en- 
tering upon his tenth year, and as the fire kindled by 
them was never permitted to subside on the colonial side of 
the revolution, he did little more than to partake of the spirit 
of the age in becoming a zealous advocate for maintaining 
the liberty of the colonies at the expense of a war which the 
ministry seemed blindly determined on bringing about. 

Actuated by such sentiments, and fully alive to the im- 
portance of military defences, he had barely attained his 
eighteenth year before he associated himself with a volunteer 



238 MARSHALL. [1775. 

corps, for the purpose of acquiring that knowledge in arms 
which Washington had some }''ears before declared no one 
should hesitate to use in defence of so valuable a blessing as 
their liberty. The battle of Lexington which took place on 
the 19th of April, 1775, put an end to all hopes of a peaceful 
termination to their troubles, and roused the colonies to a de- 
termination to resist with their lives, the oppressive burdens 
attempted to be laid upon them. " However trivial this af- 
fair may hav'^e been in itself," remarks Marshall, "it was in 
its consequences of the utmost importance. It was the com- 
mencement of a long and obstinate war, and it had no incon- 
siderable influence on that war, by increasing the confidence 
which the Americans felt in themselves, and encouraging op- 
position by the hope of its being successful. It supported the 
opinion which had been taken up with some degree of doubt, 
that courage and patriotism were ample substitutes for any 
deficiency in the knowledge of tactics, and that their skill as 
marksmen, gave them a great superiority over their ad- 
versaries." 

When the news of this battle reached Virginia, Marshall, 
then a youth of nineteen, and acting as a lieutenant to a vol- 
unteer company, met his men for the purpose of mustering 
them, in the absence of the captain, about ten miles from his 
father's house, which journey he performed on foot. On this 
occasion his tall and slender form was set otY by a light blue 
hunting shirt, with pantaloons of tlie same color, fringed with 
a white trimming. He wore rather jauntily, a round black 
hat, surmounted by a buck's tail, which partly shaded a face 
of dark complexion, marked bj^ great good humor, and a more 
than ordinary degree of intelligence. His black hair, which 



/Ex. 19.] MINUTE BATTALION. 239 

fell ingreat profusion over his shoulders, and his dark, pene- 
trating eye, lit up with a sprightly animation, served to com- 
plete a figure indicative rather of agility than strength, in 
which however, he was far from being deficient. He carried 
in his hand a gun, whose breech he planted on the ground, as 
his comrades, who were much attached to him, gathered 
round, to learn the particulars of the Lexington affair, of 
which they had heard many rumors without being able to as- 
certain any thing very positive, as no one within the compass 
of many miles around was fortunate enough to take a news- 
paper. 

After having satisfied their curiosity, he exercised them in 
a variety of military evolutions, and finally dismissed them 
with the observation, that if they wished further information 
about the battle of Lexington, he would tell them what he knew 
about it. The company gathered in a circle about him, while 
he narrated in a graphic manner the events connected with 
the battle, and terminated a speech of an hour's length, with 
the description of a plan for forming a Minute Battalion, he 
said he intended to join, and expected many of his comrades 
who then heard him, would likewise. He then challenged 
one of his companions to a game of quoits, and the day was 
closed with this and other athletic exercises. 

He was shortly after appointed tlie lieutenant of a company 
in the Minute Battalion, formed of the militia, who agreed to 
encamp for a certain number of days at specified seasons, in 
order to accustom themselves to the use of arms and military 
discipline, so as to be ready to march at any time to the de- 
fence of the colony at a minute's notice. The services of 
this battalion were soon called into requisition by the preda- 



240 MARSHALL. 



[1775. 



tory warfare kept up by Lord Dunniore, and a small force of 
regulars under his command from the shipping, to which they 
had retreated in the harbor of Norfolk. The inhabitants 
being unable to resist their annoying attacks, sought the as- 
sistance of the upland troops, who speedily marched to their 
relief. " Hearing of their approach, Lord Dunmore took a 
very judicious position on the north side of Elizabeth river, 
at the great bridge, where it was necessary for the provincials 
to cross in order to reach Norfolk, at which place he had es- 
tablished himself in some force. Here he erected a small 
fort on a piece of firm ground, surrounded by a marsh, which 
was only accessible on either side by a long causeway. The 
American troops took post within cannon shot of the enemy, 
in a small village at the south end of the causeway, across 
which, just at its termination, they constructed a breastwork, 
but being without artillery, were unable to make any attempt 
upon the fort. 

" In this position both parties continued for a few days, 
when Lord Dunmore, participating probably in that contempt 
for the Americans, which had been so freel}^ expressed in the 
House of Commons, ordered Captain Fordyce, the commanding 
ollicer at the great bridge, though inferior in numbers, to storm 
the works of the provincials. Between daybreak and sun- 
rise, this otficer at the head of about sixty grenadiers of the 
fourteenth regiment, who led the column of the enemy, ad- 
vanced on the causeway, with fixed bayonets against the 
breastwork. The alarm was immediately given, and as is the 
practice with raw troops, the bravest of the Americans rushed 
to the works, where, unmindful of order, the}^ kept up a tre- 
mendous fire on the front of the British column. Captain 



^T. 19.] BATTLE OF NORFOLK. 241 

Ford^'ce, though roceived so warmly in front, and takon in 
flank, by a small body of nieu who wore collected by Colonel 
Stevens, of the Minute Battalion, and posted on an eminence 
something more than one hundred yards to the left, marched 
up under this terrible fire witli great intrepidity, until he fell 
dead within a few steps of the breast work. The column im- 
mediately broke, but the British troops being covered in their 
retreat by the artillery of the fort, were not pursued. In this 
ill judged attack, every grenadier is said to have been killed 
or wounded, while the Americans did not lose a single man."* 

INIarshall was present, and shared the fatigues and honors 
of this battle. It is needless to say, that these victories ob- 
tained at the outset of this struggle, however inconsiderable 
in themselves, inspired the raw soldiery of the colonies with 
great confidence in their own powers, and led the way to 
those more formidable deeds of valor recorded in the history 
of this unnatural but eventful warfare. 

In the following year he received the appointment of lieu- 
tenant in the eleventh regiment of continental troops, and 
was shortly after promoted to the rank of captain. In this 
character he was present at the battle of Germantown — was 
one of the ill fed and suftering band, who were exposed to 
the rigors of a severe winter in the memorable campaign of 
Valley Forge — fought under Washington and La Fayette at the 
battles of Brandywine and Monmouth — was one of the cover- 
ing party at the siege of Stoney Point, and officiated in the 
same capacity at the retreat of Major Lee, after the brilliant 
afiair at Pawle's Hook. 

While there remained a need for his services, he freely 
and fearlessly bestowed them upon his country, but when 
31 *lVIarshaH. 



242 MARSHALL. [1779. 

this exigency passed away, he gladly sought the opportunity 
to return to more quiet and congenial pursuits. In the winter 
of 1779, he retired to Virginia, with a number of other super- 
numerary officers, whose services were not at the moment re- 
quired, and taking advantage of this interval, attended the 
law lectures given by Chancellor Wythe, at William and 
Mary's College, and soon after qualified to practice law, to 
which profession he was much attached. He had become a 
soldier from a high and imperious sense of duty — he turned 
his attention to the law from choice. Indeed, during his 
military campaigns, his legal services as a judge advocate, 
were frequently called into requisition, in which position he 
was brought into contact in the most favorable manner, with 
Washington, Hamilton, La Fayette, and the other distin- 
guished leaders of the American army. 

Marshall's great reasoning powers soon placed him in a very 
elevated position, at a bar composed of some of the ablest 
speakers of the day, while his personal popularity threw open 
to him the door of political preferment. He was elected to 
the State Legislature in the spring of 1782, and chosen during 
the same year, one of the Executive Council, and removed 
his residence to Richmond, where he married ]\Iiss Ambler, a 
daughter of the Treasurer of Virginia. 

The duties of his profession had now become so arduous as 
to induce him to resign his place in the Executive Council to 
devote himself exclusively to it. During the three succeed- 
ing years, he was returned to the legislature, first from the 
county of Farquair, a greater compliment from the circum- 
stance that he had ceased to reside there for several years, 
and second, from Richmond. In this body, among whose 



iEx. 22.] DANGERS OF THE UNION. 243 

members at that period, were the chaste and graceful Richard 
Henry Lee, the gifted Tazewell, the logical and cautious Mad- 
ison, the accomjilished AVythe, the eloquent Edmund Ran- 
dolj)h, and the erratic, but mighty orator Patrick Henry, Mar- 
shall maintained an elevated position as a close reasoner and 
eloquent speaker. 

The country had now thrown off the shackles of Great 
Britain, and after a long and harassing warfare of eight years' 
continuance, succeeded in maintaining their independence at 
home, and obtaining its acknowledgment by treaties with 
France, Holland, Prussia, Spain, and England herself. But 
the quiet of peace had no sooner succeeded the desolating 
tumult of war, than new and distracting questions arose, 
which seemed to threaten an anarchy more terrible than the 
war from which it had so fortunately emerged. 

The thirteen States had with considerable reluctance, en- 
tered into a confederation for mutual defence against a com- 
mon enemy, but no sooner had this enemy been defeated, 
than their jealousy in regard to the powers of this confedera- 
tion returned with renewed acrimony. They had been too 
long the sufferers of an arbitrary power not to be jealous of so 
disposing of it as to lead to the remotest probability of its ever 
being exercised over them again. The delegated powers 
granted by the sovereign States were so confined as to render 
the acts of the confederation almost nugatory, and yet they 
were watched over by the legislatures of the States with a 
jealousy which seemed to apprehend the most direful conse- 
quences from their use. " A government depending upon 
thirteen distinct sovereignties for the preservation of the public 
faith, could not be rescued from ignominy and contempt but 



244 MARSHALL. [1787. 

by finding those sovereignties administered by men exempt 
from the passions incident to human nature." 

The immediate consequences upon this state of things, were 
the destruction of public credit, disregard of private contracts, 
prostration of commerce, suspension of industrial pursuits, 
and a g^eneral stao-uation in all kinds of business. What little 
money remained in the country was subject to a perpetual 
drain, to supplj' those manufactures of which the people stood 
in need and had nothing to give in return, while those brave 
veterans who had served to the great injury of their private 
affairs through the whole period of the war, and " whose blood 
and bravery had defended the liberties of their country," 
were left at its termination without pay or occupation, to drag 
out their days in a wretched poverty, or miserably perish for 
want of that justice which the confederation was too feeble to 
grant. 

The country soon became divided between those Avho de- 
sired to put an end to these difficulties by granting an efficient 
power to redress them in the general government, and those 
who sought to retain that power with the States. On the side 
of those who desired a strong general government, was Wash- 
ington, who did not believe the United States could long 
" exist as a nation, without lodging somewhere a power which 
would pervade the whole union in as energetic a manner as 
the authority of the State governments extended over the 
several States;" and by his side was Marshall, who declares 
that he " had grown up at a time when the love of the Union, 
and the resistance to the claims of Great Britain were the in- 
separable inmates of the same bosom ; when patriotism and a 
strons: fellow feelins with our sufferin": fellow-citizens of Bos- 



jEt. 31.] ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 245 

ton, were identical; when the maxim — united we stand, di- 
vided we fall — was the maxim of every orthodox American." 
"And," he continues, "I had imbibed these sentiments so 
thoroughly that they constituted a part of my being. I car- 
ried them with me into the army, where I found myself asso- 
ciated with brave men, risking life and every thing valuable, 
in a common cause, believed by all to be most precious ; and 
where I was confirmed in the habit of considering America as 
my country, and Congress as my government." 

When this question came up for discussion in the Assembly 
of Virginia, it is hardly necessary to say, that Marshall was 
found on the side of those who sought to extend the powers 
of the general government so as to bestow upon it a greater 
efficiency. While Washington was the acknowledged leader 
of this party in the country, Madison was its able cham- 
pion in the Assembly. With a modesty equal to his great- 
ness, Marshall was content to follow this able statesman, and 
second his endeavors to the best of his ability. 

As the powers of the confederation grew weaker and weaker, 
as its influence was day by day waning, and the respect for 
it proportionably diminishing, and its feeble and spasmodic 
struggles plainly betokened its approaching and inevitable dis- 
solution, those who believed they saw in the union of the 
States, the only safeguard for the perpetuation of their newly 
acquired freedom, with an effort worthy of the cause, united 
to call a convention to form a Constitution to govern the 
States. The confederation, which had been feeble in its ac- 
tion, and uncertain in its duration, was the result of a neces- 
sity which had now ceased to exist, and not a matter of de- 
liberate choice. " Like many other human institutions," says 



246 MARSHALL. [1787. 

Marshall, " it was productive neither in war nor in peace, of 
all the benefits which its sanguine advocates had expected. 
Had peace been made before any agreement for a permanent 
union was formed, it is far from being improbable that the dif- 
ferent parts might have fallen asunder, and a dismemberment 
have taken place. If the confederation really preserved the 
idea of union until the good sense of the nation adopted a 
more efficient system, this service alone entitles that instru- 
ment to the respectful recollection of the American people, 
and its framers to their gratitude." 

Tlie convention assembled under this call, met at Philadel- 
l)hla, and after several weeks of stormy debate, agreed upon 
the present Constitution of the United States, and placed it 
before the people for their adoption or rejection. This was a 
new phase brought into the political arena, and as all the 
members of the convention were not as cautious as Franklin 
in expressing their opinion of its demerits, the party opposed 
to it were armed with arguments which if not of the real im- 
portance they attached to them, were so plausible as to cause 
men to ponder deeply before giving their assent to a measure 
which might make all their previous struggles and privations 
worse than useless to themselves, and their posterity. 

Nor indeed, can those who have witnessed the growth and 
prosperity of the United States, under the benign influences 
of this revered safeguard of liberty, form any just estimate of 
the trying circumstances in which their forefathers were 
placed at this eventful moment — a moment of the most 
breathless anxiety and portentious forebodings — a moment on 
which the future destiny of the North American Republic 
seemed to depend — a moment in which one false step would 



^T. 31.] VIRGINIA DEBATES. 247 

have led the way to a despotism more terrible than tliat from 
which they had just been freed. 

At a time like this, the convention of which Marshall was 
chosen a member, met to discuss this subject. The State of 
Virginia, from her high position in the confederacy, the de- 
votion she had evinced in the struggles of the Revolution, 
and the acknowledged ability of her gifted and eloquent 
statesmen, was looked upon as the State whose vote would, 
in a great measure, determine the action of the other States in 
the adoption or rejection of this instrument. The parties for 
ind against it were untiring in their exertions to elect can- 
didates of their own particular mode of thinking, and when 
the convention had assembled, it was found that its most able 
and prominent members occupied different ranks, and were 
prepared to debate, sentence by sentence, the momentous 
document before them. The selection of Marshall as a mem- 
ber of this convention, furnishes one of the strongest com- 
mentaries that can be given, of the estimation in which he 
was held by those among whom he lived. The majority in 
his district were decidedly opposed to the adoption of the 
Constitution, yet no sooner did he announce himself as a can- 
didate for a seat in the convention, than his personal friends 
rallied around him in such numbers as to give hira a large 
majority of the votes, although his sentiments were known 
to be unequivocally in favor of the adojition of the instrument 
they were to assemble to discuss. 

" Few assemblies," remarks the accomplished Justice 
Story, " have ever been convened under circumstances of a 
more solemn and imposing responsibility. It was understood 
that the vote of Virginia would have a principal, and perhaps 



248 MARSHALL. [1788. 

decisive influence upon several other States ; and for some 
weeks the question of the adoption of the Constitution hung 
suspended upon the deliberations of that body. On one side 
were enlisted the powerful influence of Grayson, the strong 
and searching sense of George Mason, and the passionate and 
captivating eloquence of Patrick Henry. On the other side 
were the persuasive talents of George Nichols, the animated 
flow of Governor Randolph, the grave and sententious sagacity 
of Pendleton, the masculine logic of Marshall, and the con- 
summate skill and various knowledge of Madison. Day after 
day, during the period of twenty-five days, the debate was 
continued with unabated ardor, and obstinate perseverance." 
This convention, exhibiting a display of forensic ability 
seldom equalled by any deliberative body, opened its session 
at Richmond on the 2d day of June, 1788, by electing Mr. 
Pendleton as President. The debate was opened by Nichols, 
who was followed by Patrick Henry, as the leader of the op- 
position, in a speech marked by those wonderful powers of 
eloquence with whicli he was wont on great occasions to over- 
power the judgment of liis liearers, and bind them as captives 
to his cause. There was something so fearfully impressive in 
the slow and measured tone in which he urged his objections 
to the Constitution, and so ominous in the deep and earnest 
manner in which he requested them to pause ere a step was 
taken which might plunge the country in misery, and destroy 
the bright hopes of the republic, that those whose minds were 
fixed as friends of the Constitution, began to waver, and it 
required all the eloquence and great reasoning powers of Mad- 
ison, Randolph, Pendleton, Wythe, Henry Lee, and others, 



^T. 32.] VIRGINIA DEBATES. 249 

to withstand the magical effect of his passionate declamation, 
and secure a small majority in favor of its adoption. 

During these debates, Marshall, with a modesty peculiarly 
characteristic of the man, shrunk from assuming a forward 
position in a debate he was admirably calculated to sustain, 
and contented himself with following and sustaining his great 
leader, James Madison. " But on three great occasions, 
namely, the debates on the power of taxation, the power over 
the militia, and the power of the judiciary, Mr. Marshall gave 
free scope to his genius, and argued with a most commanding 
ability. We can trace, even through the dim lights reflected 
in the printed speeches, many of those sagacious and states- 
manlike views, which have characterised his subsequent life. 
We see there the germs of those great constitutional princi- 
ples, which he has since so largely contributed to establish, 
and which, if any thing can, will give immortality to this 
great instrument of our national liberties." * 

It has been alleged that the strenuous support given by 
Marshall to the Constitution, sprung from a conscientious be- 
lief of the inability of an enlightened people to govern them- 
selves without a strong form of government, to keep in check 
the turbulence of human passion. This opinion is not sustained 
by his reported speeches on this memorable occasion. " I 
conceive," says Marshall, in his reply to Patrick Henry "that 
the object of the discussion now before us, is whether de- 
mocracy or despotism be most eligible. Those who framed 
the system submitted to our investigation, and those who now 
support it, intend the establishment and security of the former. 
The friends of the Constitution claim the title of being firm 

* North American Review, vol. xxvi, p. 12. 

32 



250 MARSHALL. [1788. 

friends of liberty and the rights of mankind. They consider 
it the best means of protecting liberty. We sir, idolize de- 
mocracy. Those who oppose it have bestowed eulogiums on 
monarchy. We prefer this system to any monarchy, because 
«ve are convinced that it has a greater tendency to secure our 
liberty and promote our hapj^iness. We admire it because 
we think it a well regulated democracy." 

When the labors of the convention were terminated by the 
adoption of the Constitution, Marshall determined to relin- 
quish politics and devote himself exclusively to his profession, 
lO which his own inclination as well as the demands of an 
increasing family, naturally led him. The earnest appeals of 
his friends, however, soon induced him to forego this prudent 
resolution, and enter anew the political arena. He was ac- 
cordingly elected to the Legislature in 1788, and became the 
leading champion of the national administration in that body, 
against one of the most formidable and uncompromising oppo- 
sitions it ever had to encounter. After servins; in the Legis- 
lature for four consecutive years, he returned to private life, 
and soon became engaged in most of the important cases be- 
fore the legal tribunals of Virginia. 

" On the seventh of March," says Marshall, " the treaty of 
amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States 
and Great Britain, which had been signed by Lord Grenville 
and Mr. Jay, on the 19th of the preceding November, was re- 
ceived at the office of State.* 

" From his arrival in London, on the 15th of June, Mr. Jay 
had been assiduously and unremittingly employed on the ar- 
duous duties of his mission. By a deportment respectful, 
yet firm, mingling a decent deference for the government to 



iEr. 32.] MR. JAY'S TREATY. 251 

which he was deputed, with a proper regard for the dignity 
of his own, this minister avoided these little asperities which 
frequently embarrass measures of great concern, and smoothed 
the way to the adoption of those which were suggested by 
the real interests of both nations. Many and intricate were 
the points to be discussed. On some of them an agreement 
was found to be impracticable, but at length, a treaty was 
concluded which Mr. Jay declared to be best that was attain- 
able, and which he believed it for the interests of the United 
States to accept. Indeed, it was scarcely possible to contem- 
plate the evidences of extreme exasperation which were 
given in America, and the nature of the differences which 
subsisted between the two countries, without feeling a con- 
viction that war was inevitable, should this attempt to adjust 
these differences prove unsuccessful. 

" On Monday, the eighth of June, the day on which the 
Vice President and members of the Senate had been sum- 
moned to attend, a quorum of that body convened in the Sen- 
ate chamber, and the treaty, with the documents connected 
with it, were submitted to their consideration, that they might 
' in their wisdom, decide whether they would advise and con- 
sent that it should be made.' 

" On the twenty-fourth of June, after bestowing on the 
treaty the minute and laborious investigation, to which the 
magnitude and intricacy of the subject gave it such preten- 
sions, the Senate by precisely a constitutional majority, ad- 
vised and consented to its conditional ratification." 

This treaty became a subject of the most exciting discus- 
sion, and as soon as it was known that it would be recom- 
mended by the Executive to the Senate for its adoption, pub- 



252 MARSHALL. [1792. 

lit- inootino;s were called, and oilier evidences of public dis- 
I'livor iTuuiilVsted to jirevent its execution. In 1795, Mar- 
shall was again electeil to tiie Le<i;islature without his assent, 
expressly on the gioiuul of sustaining the Exeentive in his 
course concerning the treaty. 

The hostile feehng io this treaty was so intense and so 
general in Virginia, that JMarshali was nrged hy his friends to 
abstain I'roni entering into the arena as its champion. No ar- 
gument lu»\vever, bastnl upon a n\ere loss of j)opularity, or fear 
of oi)[)osing public sentin\ent, could divert him from the strict 
and iniwavering line of duty, and while he came to the pru- 
dent resolve not to be the tirst to agitate so exciting a subject 
in the [.(>gishitur(\ he at the same tin\e determined to sustain 
it, slutuld it be brought up for discussion from another (piarter. 

Its opponents took an early opportunity to introilnce it, and 
urged among other reasons of less weight, its want of consti- 
tutionality, and the dangerous ])o\ver it bestowed uimn the 
President, and a small part oi' the Senate, ov(M- the fate of the 
entire I\e})nblic. These arguments were urged with great 
ability and nuich show oi' reason, especially by those who 
fron\ the begiiuiing, were fearful oi' concentrating any useful 
pt)\ver in the hands oi' the gtMieral g\)vernment, lest it might 
in time sap the foinulations of that liberty they had obtained 
at so great a sacrifice. They considered this as one of the 
first and most formidable encroachments upon their privileges, 
and plainly saw through the assumptiiMi of so much power, 
the glitter of a regal diadtMu, and the odious appendages oi' a 
hated monarchy. 

Accustomed as we are at this day. io look upon Washing- 
ton as tar removed froui any of that suspicion which attaches 



iEr. 3().] DEFENCE OK THE ADMINISTRATION. 253 

to tho motives of most men, we can hanlly ri>;iIi/o the stormy 
scones throu}:;li which liis administration passed, or compre- 
hend the assanlts made upon it by its opponents. This op- 
position, and it was one founded in tlit> tull belief of the evil 
tenihMiey of many of its measurers, was parlieularly aimed 
against those which orij^inated with tlie Secretary oC the 
Treasury, always dillicult to rei2;ulate, and especially so at the 
commencement of file o|)cralions of a new government. 

" Throug-liout the United States," remarks INIarsliall, '' the 
party opposed to the Constitution hjul charged its advocatea 
with a desire to establish a nuMiarchy on the ruins of r(>pub- 
lican government ; and the Conslilution itscll" was alleged to 
contain priii(i[)lt\s which would [irovc tim truth of this charge. 
The leaders of that jnirty had therel'ore been ready from the 
instant the governnu^it canu^ into o|)eration, to discover in all 
its measures, those monarchial liMidencies which they had 
perciMved iu the inslruiiu'iit they o|)posed. 

"The salaries allowed to j)ul)lie ollicers, though so low as 
not to afford a decent maintenance to those who resided at 
the seat of government, were declared to be so enormously 
high as clearly to manifest a total disrt>gard of that .simplicity 
and economy which were characteristic of republics. The 
levees of the rresiilciit, and the evening parties of Mrs. 
Washington, were said to be iiiiitalions of regal institutions, 
designed to accustom the American peo])le to the pomp and 
manners of European courts." 

The speech in which Marshall sustained the constitution- 
ality of the treaty making power, and the conduct of the 
President and his cal)inet, is rejireseuted as one of the ablest 
displays he ever made of his great intellectual powers, and 



254 MARSHALL. [1797. 

so powerful were his arguments, so clear and logical his con- 
clusions, and so convincing his facts and demonstrations, that 
his triumph was complete. 

He had now acquired a distinguished reputation as an emi- 
nent member of the Virginia bar, and while his great learning 
and professional ability placed him in so elevated a position, 
his affectionate disposition, gentleness of nature, and simple 
and unostentatious manner, made him a favorite with all 
classes and political castes of his fellow citizens. The debates 
in which he had participated in the convention appointed to 
give its assent or dissent to the Constitution, and the active 
part he had since taken in defending the measures of the ad- 
ministration under it, led him to examine that instrument in 
all its varied and intricate relations, with the most minute and 
careful scrutiny, so that even at this period of his life, he took 
his position at the head of constitutional lawyers. 

No one was more capable of appreciating his eminent legal 
abilities than Washington, who pressed upon him with much 
earnestness the post of Attorney General of the United States, 
which he declined, from a regard to the wants of his numerous 
and increasing family, requiring his close application to his 
jDrofession at home, now a source of considerable profit, as 
well as honor. For the same reason, he declined to accept 
the position of Minister to France, offered to him by Wash- 
ington, upon the recall of Mr. Monroe. 

Upon the refusal of the French Directory to receive Mr. 
Pinckney, of South Carolina, as an accredited minister from 
this government, Mr. Adams, who had just succeeded Wash- 
ington in the presidential chair, determined to conciliate that 
government, if possible, and sent an extraordinary mission. 



^T. 41.] MINISTER TO FRANCE. 255 

composed of General Pinckney, Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Gerry. 
The posture of affairs appeared to be so critical, and the ap- 
peals of his friends were so urgent, that Marshall was induced 
to change the determination he had formed, not to accept 
public employment, and with great reluctance undertook the 
mission. 

Mr. Jefferson, in regard to this negotiation, in his journal 
says : 

" March 2d, 1797. — I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as 
Vice President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who 
lodged at Francis's, in Fourth street. The next morning he 
returned my visit at Mr. Madison's, where I lodged. He 
found me alone in my room, and shutting the door himself, he 
said he was glad to find me alone, for that he wished a free 
conversation with me. He entered immediately on an expla- 
nation of the situation of our affairs with France, and the 
danger of rupture with that nation — a rupture which would 
convulse the attachments of this country ; that he was im- 
pressed with the necessity of an immediate mission to the 
Directory ; that it would have been the first wish of his heart 
to have got me to go there, but that he supposed it was out of 
the question, as it did not seem justifiable for him to send 
away the person destined to take his place in case of accident 
to himself, nor decent to remove from competition one who 
was a rival in the public favor. That he had therefore con- 
cluded to send a mission, which, by its dignity, should satisfy 
France, and by its selection from the three great divisions of 
the continent, should satisfy all parts of the United States ; 
in short, that he had determined to join Gerry and Madison 
to Pinckney, and he wished me to consult Mr. Madison for 



256 MARSHALL. [1797. 

him. I told him, that as to myself, I concurred in the opinion 
of the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned, and that 
my inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross 
the Atlantic again ; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. 
Madison, but I feared it was desperate, as he had refused that 
mission on my leaving it, in General Washington's time, 
though it was kept open a twelve month for him. He said 
that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint him, 
and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madi- 
son, who declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday, 
the 6th of March, Mr. Adams and myself met at dinner, at 
General Washington's, and we happened in the evening, to 
rise from the table and come away together. As soon as we 
got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation 
with Mr. Madison. He immediately said, that on consulta- 
tion, some objection to that nomination had been raised which 
he had not contemplated ; and was going on with excuses 
which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to Fifth 
street, where our road separated, his being down Market 
street, mine off along Fifth, and we took leave : and he never 
after that, said one word to me on the subject, or ever con- 
sulted me as to any measure of the government. The opinion 
I formed at the time on this transaction, was, that Mr. Adams, 
in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the occasion, (his 
inauguration,) forgot party sentiments, and as he never acted 
on any system, but was always governed by the feelings of 
the moment, he thought, for a moment, to steer impartially 
between the parties ; that Monday, the 6th of March, being 
the first time he had met his cabinet, on expressing ideas of 



JEt. 4:1.] DIPLOMATIC INSTRUCTIONS. 257 

this kind, he had been at once diverted from them, and re- 
turned to his former party views." * 

The envoys extraordinary, charged with full instructions, 
and confided with authority to settle the differences betwixt 
the two countries, arrived in Paris on the 4th of October, 
1797, and on the next day, verbally informed the minister of 
foreign affairs, of their arrival, and desired to know when he 
would be at leisure to receive one of their secretaries with 
the official notification of their appointment. The following 
day was named for this purpose, when their secretary bore a 
communication from them to the minister, desiring him to fix 
a time on which to receive them in an official manner. 

The minister appointed one o'clock on the following day, 
to receive them, and they accordingly waited upon him at 
the specified time, at his house. The disposition in which 
the American envoys approached the minister of foreign af- 
fairs, may be judged from the commencement of the instruc- 
tions received by them from their own government. 

" It is known to you," begins these instructions, " that the 
people of the United States of America entertain a warm and 
sincere affection for the people of France, ever since their 
arms were united in the war with Great Britain, which ended 
in the full and formal acknowledgment of the independence 
of these States. It is known to you, that this affection was 
ardent when the French determined to reform their govern- 
ment and establish it on the basis of liberty — that liberty in 
which the people of the United States were born, and which, 
in the conclusion of the war above mentioned, was finally and 
firmly secured. It is known to you, that this affection rose to 

* Jefferson's Works, vol. iv, p. 501. 

33 



258 MARSHALL. [1797. 

enthusiasm, when the war was kindled between France and 
the powers of Europe, which were combined against her for 
the avowed purpose of restoring the monarchy, and every 
where vows were heard for the success of the French arms. 
Yet, during this period France expressed no wish that the 
United States should depart from their neutrality. And 
while no duty required us to enter into the war, and our best 
interests urged us to remain at peace, the government deter- 
mined to take a neutral station. 

" A government thus fair and upright in its principles, and 
just and impartial in its conduct, might have confidently 
hoped to be secure against formal official censure ; but the 
United States have not been so fortunate. The acts of their 
government, in its various branches, though pure in principle, 
and impartial in operation, and conformable to the indis- 
i:)ensable rights of sovereignty, have been assigned as the 
cause of the offensive and injurious measures of the French 
Republic. For proofs of the former, all the acts of the gov- 
ernment may be vouched ; while the aspersions so freely ut- 
tered by the French ministers, the refusal to hear the minister 
of the United States, specially charged to enter into amicable 
discussions on all topics of complaint, the decrees of the Ex- 
ecutive Directory, and of their agents, the depredations on 
our commerce, and the violences against the persons of our 
citizens, are evidences of the latter. These injuries and dep- 
redations will constitute an important subject in your discus- 
sions with the French Republic ; and for all these wrongs you 
will seek redress." 

They were told that the minister was engaged with the 



^T. 41.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 259 

Directory, and were requested by the secretary-general to de- 
fer their visit until three o'clock. They did so, and after 
waiting about ten minutes, were received and formally intro- 
duced. The minister informed them that the Directory had 
desired a report from him on American affairs, and that as 
soon as it was completed, which would be in a few days, they 
should be informed what course would be necessary for them 
to pursue. 

They desired to know if cards of hospitality were necessary 
in the meantime. Talleyrand replied that they were, and 
should be delivered. He then rung for his secretary, and di- 
rected them to be prepared and sent to the ambassadors. The 
cards were presented on the following day, in a style corres- 
ponding with the official character of the representatives of 
the sovernment of the United States, and thus terminated 
Marshall's first interview with Talleyrand. 

During the course of the following week, they were told, in 
an apparently indirect manner, by Major Mountflorence, that 
the Directory felt highly indignant at some portions of the 
President's message, made at the opening of the last session 
of Congress, and were led to believe that the Directory would 
not grant to them a public audience, but that some person 
might be appointed to treat with them on the subject of their 
mission. This information came in a pretty direct line from 
the office of the minister of foreign affairs, and was sup- 
posed to have originated with him, and therefore to assume an 
official character and corresponding importance. 

At this point the official intercourse with the French gov- . 
ernment, was, for the present, suspended. A few days after- 
wards, General Pinckney was waited on by a gentleman who 



260 MARSHALL. [1797. 

was intimate with Talleyrand, and informed that another gen- 
tleman whom Pinckney had seen, was a person of consider- 
ation, and fully to be relied on. On the evening of the same 
day, the person alluded to, styled in the correspondence, Mr. 
X.* called, and after a little time, informed Pinckney, in a 
whisper, that he had a message from Talleyrand to communi- 
cate to him at his leisure. Pinckney immediately retired into 
an adjoining apartment, where he was told that his visitor 
came in no official character, but that having known M. Tal- 
leyrand, and being confident of his desire to settle the differ- 
ences betwixt the two countries, he was ready, if it was 
thought proper, to suggest a plan, in confidence, which Tal- 
leyrand thought might answer that end. 

He then expatiated on the state of feeling in the Directory 
towards the President on account of his message to Congress, 
and stated that two of them were highly exasperated and 
might prove intractable, but that through the good offices of 
M. Talleyrand, an accommodation might be made, and the 
ministers received, but that prior to this it was necessary to 
place the sum of twelve hundred thousand livers at the dis- 
position of M. Talleyrand, to be pit into the pockets of the 
members of the Directory, and the ministers, as a douceur. 
With these preliminaries agreed upon, he thought their dif- 
ferences might be arranged to the satisfaction of both gov- 
ernments. 

General Pinckney replied, that his colleagues as well as him- 
self, had from their entrance into the French metropolis, been 
treated with a marked disrespect, not at all compatible with 

* The name of this gentleman has not been divulged, but he is known to 
have been a highly respectable citizen of Paris, who died there a few years 
since. 



JEt. 4:1.] TALLEYRAND — MR. BELLAMY. 261 

an amicable settlement of their differences ; that it was the 
earnest desire of his government that these should be arranged, 
and that they had been entrusted with great latitude to obtain 
this by proper means, but that he could not consider any 
proposition before communicating it to his colleagues, and ob- 
taining their opinion upon it. 

Messrs. Marshall and Gerry, after being informed by Gen- 
eral Pinckney of the overture made to him, agreed that Mr. 
Pinckney should request Mr. X. to make his proposals to the 
whole commission, in form, and for fear of mistakes, suggested 
that he should reduce them to writing. Mr. X. called in the 
evening, about six, with his propositions, which he said were 
not had by him immediately from M. Talleyrand, but through 
another gentleman in whom Talleyrand had great confidence, 
but whose name at this interview did not transpire. 

The propositions were substantially those made to Mr. 
Pinckney, but inasmuch as he could not tell what parts of the 
President's message were exceptionable, it was agreed that he 
should breakfast with Mr. Gerry on the 21st, when he would 
be able to answer this and other inquiries more fully. Mr. X. 
called on the morning of the 20th to say that Mr. Bellamy, 
the confidential friend of Talleyrand, would wait upon the 
ministers himself, instead of communicating through him, as 
originally contemplated. 

It was agreed that the conference should be held in Mr. 
Marshall's apartment, at seven o'clock. At the appointed 
hour, Mr. X., accompanied by Mr. Bellamy, whom he intro- 
duced as the confidential friend of Talleyrand, entered, and 
at once introduced the subject, which made the visit necessary. 
He stated that Talleyrand entertained the most friendly feel- 



262 MARSHALL. [1797. 

ing for America, heightened by the kindness and civility be- 
stowed upon him when there, and that the impression left by 
these attentions upon his mind, made him solicitous to aid the 
present negotiations by his good offices with the Directory, 
who he said were extremely irritated against the United 
States government, and had neither acknowledged, nor au- 
thorized M. Talleyrand to have any communication with them. 
This prevented, he said, the minister from seeing them him- 
self, but he had authorized him, as a friend, although he disa- 
vowed possessing any diplomatic character, to treat with them, 
and if they were disposed to make his suggestions the basis 
for a negotiation, to intercede in their behalf with the Direc- 
tory, to obtain for them a public audience. 

The propositions delivered to the ministers on this occasion, 
were certainly not marked by any disposition to redress the 
wrongs under which the American government supposed itself 
to be laboring, but on the contrary, appeared to begin and end 
in demands for reparation. " There is demanded a formal 
disavowal in writing, declaring that the speech of the citizen 
Barras, did not contain any thing offensive to the government 
of the United States, nor any thing which deserved the epi- 
thets contained in the whole paragraph. Secondly, reparation 
is demanded for the article by which it shall be declared, that 
the decree of the Directory there mentioned, did not contain 
any thing contrary to the treaty of 1778, and had none of 
those fatal consequences, that the paragraph reproaches to it. 
Thirdly, it is demanded that there shall be an acknowledg- 
ment in writing, of the depredations exercised on our trade 
by the English and French privateers. Fourthly, the gov- 
ernment of France, faithful to the profession of public faith, 



iEr. 41.] THE FRENCH DIRECTORY. 263 

which it has made not to intermeddle in the internal affairs of 
foreign governments with which it is at peace, would look 
upon this paragraph as an attack upon its loyalty, if this was 
intended by the President. It demands in consequence, a 
formal declaration, that it is not the government of France, 
nor its agents, that this paragraph meant to designate. In 
consideration of these reparations, the French Republic is dis- 
posed to renew with the United States of America, a treaty, 
which shall place them reciprocally in the same state that 
they were in 1778." 

But although the Directory felt the honor of France deeply 
injured by the imputations cast upon her in the message com- 
plained of, he did not hesitate to say, that the great hinge on 
which all future negotiation was to turn, was money. " Ilfaut 
de Vargent — remarked he emphatically — il faut beaucoup 
d' argent." It requires money — it requires much money. 

On the following morning they met at Mr. Gerry's at break- 
fast. Mr. Bellamy did not arrive until ten — he had passed 
the morning with Talleyrand. He informed the ministers that 
the Directory were so incensed that they insisted on the dis- 
avowals and reparations indicated by him on yesterday, be- 
fore any steps could be had towards a negotiation. He re- 
marked that M. Talleyrand, as well as himself, were well 
aware what pain such acknowledgments must give the 
American ministers, but that upon this point the Directors 
were inexorable, and were likely to continue so if a mode 
could not be discovered to change their determination. The 
ministers requested Mr. Bellamy to be more explicit on the 
point of satisfying the Directors, without making the ac- 
knowledgments which even Talleyrand considered so hu- 



264 MARSHALL. [1797. 

miliating. Mr. Bellamy replied that it was not for him to 
discover the mode, but that the}"- must search for and suggest 
it themselves. 

On Marshall's expressing doubts as to whether such a mode 
could be discovered in the path§ in which he ordinarily trod, 
Mr. Bellamy remarked, that if he were allowed to express 
an opinion on the subject, although it was but the opinion of 
a private individual, he would suggest that it might be found 
in money. He added, that " the Directory were jealous of its 
own honor, and the honor of the nation, that it insisted on re- 
ceiving the same respect with which we had treated the king ; 
that this honor must be maintained in the manner before re- 
quired, unless something more valuable were substituted in 
the place of these reparations, and that was money." 

Mr. Bellamy, with great consideration, proposed to help 
the ministers out of their dilemma, by suggesting that the 
government held thirty-two millions of florins of Dutch in- 
scriptions, at the moment valued at ten shillings in the pound, 
which might be transferred to the government of the United 
States at a value of twenty shillings in the pound, by which 
means the United States would advance to France that sum 
which would be re-paid at the end of the war, by the Dutch 
government. 

The ministers replied promptly, that although their powers 
were ample to negotiate a treaty, they were not at liberty to 
make a loan, and tliat as to the disavowal of the obnoxious 
part of the President's message, "the Constitution of the 
United States authorised and required the President to com- 
municate his ideas on the affairs of the nation ; that in obe- 
dience to the Constitution he had done so, so that they had 



yEx. 41.] EXTRAORDINARY DEMANDS. 265 

no power to confirm or invalidate any part of tlie President's 
speech ; that such an attempt could produce no other effect 
than to make them ridiculous to the government and to tlie 
citizens at large of the United States, and to produce on the 
part of the President an immediate disavowal, and recall of 
them as his agents." They further stated that their govern- 
ment had endeavored and was still endeavoring, to maintain 
friendly relations with the French government, but that if 
France resisted all their overtures, and made war upon them, 
they should be obliged to defend themselves. With many 
protestations of personal regard on both sides, and an evident 
disappointment at the straight forward and unyielding manner 
in which the American ministers had received the wily sug- 
gestions of Talleyrand on the part of Mr. Bellamy, the in- 
terview was closed. 

On the 27th of October the ministers received another 
visit from Mr. X., who expressed great surprise that no pro- 
posal had been made by them, and stated that the Directory 
would take a decided course towards America, if they could 
not find the means to reach them. The change in political 
affairs (a treaty with the Emperor of Russia had just been 
concluded) was alluded to as showing the prowess of France, 
and the necessity of conciliating her. The ministers could 
not or would not see the point of his argument, and after 
much conversation, he at last said, " gentlemen, you do 
not speak to the point ; it is money — it is expected that you 
will offer money." The ministers replied, that they had al- 
ready given an answer to that question. "No," replied he, 
" you have not, what is it ?" " No — no," exclaimed the min- 
isters, " not a sixpence." 
34 



266 MARSHALL. [1797. 

Mr. X. begsred them to consider the character of the men 

DO 

they had to treat with ; men who disregarded the justice of 
their claims, and the arguments they might bring to sustain 
them — who even disregarded their own colonies, and over 
whom an influence could only be obtained by a judicious ap- 
plication of money. 

Mr. Marshall replied that the conduct of the French gov- 
ernment appeared to be such as to leave them but little hopes 
of success, even after an outlay of their money. 

"What then?" replied X. ; " the experiment must'be tried, 
and if you fail in accomplishing your purpose, you will only 
have done what is an every day occurrence with lawyers who 
are paid fees, whether they succeed in establishing their cases 
or. not ; besides," continued he, " all the members of the Di- 
rectory are not disposed to receive your money. Merlin, for 
instance, is paid from another quarter, and will not touch the 
douceur coming from you." 

It was intimated that it was believed Merlin was paid by 
the owners of the privateers, to which suggestion Mr. X. 
nodded assent, and remarked that Hamburg, and other States 
of Europe were obliged to buy peace, and that even the Uni- 
ted States had adopted a similar policy when treating with 
the Algerines and the Indians. 

Marshall replied that this was undoubtedly true, but that in 
treating with them it was generally understood that money 
was to be the basis of the negotiation, and the whole nation 
so understood it, but that in treating with France, the govern- 
ment of the United States had supposed that such a propo- 
sition as had been repeatedly urged upon them, would give 
mortal offence. 



^T. 41.] COURT INTRICxUES. 267 

Mr. X. expressed great surprise, and remarked that there 
was not an American in Paris who could not have informed 
the government on that point. Marshall hoped he would be 
excused for his little knowledge of these matters, but that he 
had been led to believe, and he thought this was the im- 
pression of his government, that France was acting from a 
pure and high minded principle. Mr. X. appeared surprised 
by this reply, and turning quickly to Pinckney, remarked, 
" Well sir, you have been a long time in France and Holland, 
what do you think of it?" Mr. Pinckney answered that he 
considered both Mr. Bellamy and himself as men of truth, 
and consequently there could be but one opinion on the sub- 
ject. INIr. X. finding all hopes of obtaining the money from 
them, useless, remarked, that he did not blame them if they 
could maintain their position, which he doubted, and stated 
that he would communicate the result of the interview to the 
minister. 

He begged to correct a false impression under which the 
ministers appeared to be laboring, before hand, that was, that 
they looked upon the money proposition as originating with 
the Directory, whereas it was not even suggested by a minis- 
ter, but was proposed by him as a means of getting 9vev the 
unpleasant dilemma of making an acknowledgment to the 
Directory, in relation to the message of the President, and 
besides, he added, that France had on a former occasion, 
loaned money to America. Mr. Pinckney told him that the 
case was entirely different; that America had proposed to 
France to loan her money, and had left it optional with her 
to do so or not, as she chose, but America was noAv directed 
to lend this money under the lash and coercion of France. 



268 MARSHALL. [1797. 

Marshall added with some feeling, that America was a great 
nation, and although not a populous one, she yet possessed 
great powers of self defence, and would deserve to loose them 
if she permitted them to be wrested from her, and that he 
was disposed to make at least, one manly struggle before 
parting with the national independence. 

A day or two afterwards, Mr. Gerry was informed that M. 
Talleyrand had expressed surprise at not meeting the Ameri- 
can ministers frequently in their private characters, when he 
might confer with them on the subjects of their mission. 
This information came direct from Talleyrand, and as it ap- 
peared to hold out a hope of reconciliation, the ministers did 
not feel themselves at liberty to reject it, and agreed that Mr. 
Gerry, who had formerly met Talleyrand in America, should 
wait upon him, which was done, without eliciting any addi- 
tional overtures, but an abundance of expressions of great 
regard from the courteous diplomatist, for the welfare of 
America. 

On the 29th Mr. X. again waited on them from Talleyrand, 
who he said was extremely anxious to serve them, and that 
if they would pay immediately the sum of money already 
proposed, for private use, by way of fees, they might be per- 
mitted to remain in Paris, as they then were, until one of their 
number could go to America and obtain the instructions of 
their government respecting the public loan, but that neither 
would the American property already taken be restored, nor 
any check be put on the future depredations on their commerce. 

The straight forward Americans, and especially Marshall, 
felt exceedingly outraged at the haughty tone displayed by 
the French Directory, and could not refrain from saying that 



yEx. 41.] RESOLVE OF THE MINISTERS. 269 

France had already taken Adolently from America, more than 
fifteen millions of dollars, and had treated her as an enemy, 
and that now, when they had come with overtures of peace, 
to ask for compensation for injuries received, they were told that 
they must make humiliating concessions, grant a loan to the 
French government, and pay a fee of twelve hundred thousand 
livres, for the benefit of remaining in Paris to witness the 
plays and operas, while one of their number went home to ask 
the government to exhaust its resources without any hopes 
of reconciliation with the French government after all ; that 
they would not mind the payment of a sum of money as a 
fee, if a reconciliation could be effected ; but of that they 
saw no such hopes, and although they would be happy to see 
both Mr. X. and Mr. Bellamy, as private gentlemen, it would 
be useless to approach them with overtures of such a charac- 
ter as they had hitherto been the bearers. 

After this conversation, the ministers resolved to have no 
more indirect intercourse with the government. Talle3a"and 
finding that his purposes could not be effected in the mode he 
had hitherto made use of, sent Mr. X., who took occasion to 
say, that intelligence had been received from America which 
rendered it probable that all differences might have long since 
been settled if Colonel Burr and Mr. Madison had been sent 
in the place of the present commission, and he hinted, al- 
though as not coming from Talleyrand, that he was prepar- 
ing a memorial to be sent to the United States, representing 
them as being opposed to any accommodation with France. 

These intimations produced no little unpleasant feeling, 
which betrayed itself in some asperity of language, in which 
they begged Mr. X. to inform M. Talleyrand that he might be 



270 MARSHALL. [1797. 

assured that the fear of censure would never induce them to 
act in such a manner as to deserve it ; but that they should 
pursue such a course as their consciences approved, and leave 
their reputation to sustain them. Whatever may have been 
the motives of Talleyrand in changing his diplomatic tactics, 
the only effect of the measure was to determine the American 
ministers to adhere more closely than ever to their resolve, not 
to hold any official intercourse with any other person than 
one filling an official position. The following extract from 
Marshall's Journal, shows that they adhered, as far as might 
be to this resolution : 

"December 17, 1797. — I stepped into Mr. Gerry's apart- 
ments, where I saw Mr. Bellamy. He expressed his regret at 
having been disabled to dine with us at M. de Beaumarchais' 
by an inveterate tooth-ache. He then asked me whether I 
had seen M. de Beaumarchais lately. I told him not since he 
dined with us, and that he had left us much indisposed. He 
then observed that he had not known, until lately, that I was 
the advocate for that gentleman in his cause against the State 
of Virginia, and that M. de Beaumarchais, in consequence of 
that circumstance, had expressed sentiments of high regard 
for me. I replied that M. de Beaumarchais' cause was of 
gi-eat magnitude, very uncertain issue, and, consequently, that 
a portion of the interest he felt in it would very naturally be 
transferred to his advocate. He immediately said (low and 
apart) that M. de Beaumarchais had consented, provided his 
claim could be established, to sacrifice fifty thousand pounds 
sterling of it as the private gratification which had been re- 
quired of us ; so that the gratification might be made without 
any actual loss to the American government. I answered 



iEx. 41.] LETTER TO TALLEYRAND. 271 

that a gratification on any terms, or in any form, was a sub- 
ject which we approached with much fear and difficulty, as 
we were not authoi-ized by our government to make one, nor 
had it been expected that one would be necessary ; that I 
could not undertake to say whether my colleagues would 
consent to it unless it was accompanied by a full and entire 
recognition of the claims of our citizens, and a satisfactory 
arrangement on the object of our mission. He said that it 
was in the expectation of that event only that he had men- 
tioned it. We parted, and I stated the conversation to Gen- 
eral Pinckney, who was disinclined to any stipulation of the 
sort, and considered it as a renewal of the old reprobated 
system of indirect unauthorized negotiation. 

" Having been originally the counsel of M. de Beaumar- 
chais, I had determined (and so I had informed General 
Pinckney) that I would not, by my voice, establish any 
agreement in his favor ; but that I would positively oppose 
any admission of the claim of any French citizen, if not ac- 
companied with the admission of the claims of the American 
citizens for property captured and condemned for want of a 
role d' equipage. My reason for conceiving that this ought to 
be stipulated expressly, was a conviction that, if it was re- 
ferred to commissioners, it would be committing absolutely to 
chance as complete a right as any individuals ever possessed. 
General Pinckney was against admitting the claim at any rate. 

"After my return Mr. Gerry came into my room and told 
me that Mr. Bellamy had called on him to accompany him on 
a visit to M. Talleyrand ; that he proposed seeing M. Talley- 
rand and returning the civility of the dinner, and endeavoring 
to brins: about some intercourse between him and us. 



272 MARSHALL [1798. 

" December 18. — General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry met in 
my room, and Mr. Gerry detailed the conversation mentioned 
in our public letter. The proposition relative to the claim of 
M. de Beaumarchais is entirely different from my understand- 
ing of it, in the very brief statement made to me by Mr. Bel- 
lamy. We resolved that we would rigidly adhere to the rule 
we had adopted, to enter into no negotiation with persons not 
formally authorized to treat with us. We came also to the 
determination to prepare a letter to the Minister of Foreign 
Halations, stating the object of our mission, and discussing 
the subjects of difference between the two nations in like 
manner as if we had been actually received, and to close the 
letter with requesting the government to open the negotiation 
with us or to grant us our passports." 

The task of preparing the letter above alluded to, dated 27th 
January, was confided to Marshall. It was signed j'ointly by 
the ministers, and despatched to the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
on the 31st of January, 1798. 

In this able and elaborate state paper the grounds of the 
law authorizing the capture of neutral vessels having on board 
any of the products of the British Islands, under which so 
large an amount of the property of citizens of the United 
States had been seized and appropriated to the use of the 
French government, was reviewed with such a display of able 
reasoning, exactness of detail, demonstrative illustration, con- 
summate skill in the adaptation of these illustrations, compre- 
hensive acquaintance with the laws of nations, and withal con- 
joined to such evident earnestness of purpose and dignified mod- 
eration, as to place it in the very first rank among state papers ; 
and had Marshall left behind no other memorial of the mascu- 



^T. 42.] FINAL INTERVIEW. 273 

line energy of his great mind, this document would be suffi- 
cient to place him in an elevated position as an able diplo- 
matist, a skilful reasoner, an accomplished advocate, and a 
polished writer. 

To this letter no reply was immediately given ; and indeed, 
with all the diplomatic acumen of the wily Talleyrand, at 
that moment beyond question the most skilful, and periiaps 
least principled diplomatist of Europe, no refutation of its 
arguments could, with the least show of plausibility, be given. 
Still anxious to effect a reconciliation if possible, the ministers 
desired their secretary, Major Rutledge, to call upon Talley- 
rand and ascertain if he had any reply to make to the com- 
munication made to him on the 31st of January. Talleyrand 
informed Major Rutledge that the Directory had taken no 
action on the subject, and that he had therefore no communi- 
cation to make ; but that the ministers would be informed of 
their action when had. This interview was nearly three 
weeks after the delivery of the letter of the 27th to Talley- 
rand. 

Before writing their final letter, they requested a personal 
interview with the minister, which was granted, and took 
place at his office on the 2d of Match at three o'clock. In this 
interview Mr. Pinckney began the conversation by expressing 
an anxious solicitude to settle the differences between the two 
republics if possible. He alluded to the several propositions 
they had informally received, and which they found it im- 
practicable to accede to, and asked if no other means could 
be suggested to effect so desirable an object. 

Talleyrand, who spoke in a very low tone of voice, remarked 
that the French republic wished sincerely to see the relations 
36 



274 MARSHALL. [1798. 

betwixt the United States government and itself established 
on a basis of solid and lasting friendship : as a proof of which 
he alluded to the readiness with which orders for passports had 
been given. He spoke of the manner in which the feelings 
of the Directory had been wounded by the address of Wash- 
ington, as well as that of President Adams, and remarked that 
the original friendly feelings of the Directory had been greatly 
changed by the coldness and distance observed by the min- 
isters themselves since their arrival in Paris, who, instead of 
seeing him frequently and consulting on the means by which 
difficulties might be removed, had waited on him but once, 
and appeared to be observing a cold formality, not at all com- 
patible with the friendly intentions expressed. 

Mr. Pinckney replied that, at the time their credentials 
were delivered, Talleyrand had informed them that the Direc- 
tory would decide on their case in a few days, of which de- 
cision they should be notified ; and that this had suspended 
their visits for some time. Talleyrand remarked that he did 
not allude to their public visits, which were not expected, but 
to their private ones, in which the matter might have been 
discussed, and suggestions interchanged that might have bro- 
ken down the asperity of their official intercourse. He then 
added that the Directory would require some proof of their 
friendly disposition, and especially some amende for the lan- 
guao-e of the Presidents of the United States, which amende 
they should search for and propose ; that it was not for him 
but them to discover the means, and alluded pretty plainly to 
the old subject of soothing these irritated feelings by that 
most potent placebo, money. 

After much conversation, in which Talleyrand attempted to 



^T. 42.] TALLEYRAND'S POLICY. 275 

convince them of the necessity of exceeding their powers, he 
hinted that the manner in which they shielded themselves 
behind the strict letter of their instructions evinced any thing 
but the disposition to accommodate they professed. 

Marshall told him that if the ministers of the United States 
had evinced any unwillingness to make use of every proper 
means to reconcile the two republics, or had shown any of the 
indifference attributed to them to search for the means of effect- 
ing so desirable an object, they had very imperfectly repre- 
sented the feelings and wishes of their own government, which 
had manifested a sincere desire to accommodate the differ- 
ences betwixt France and herself, by so many evidences as to 
leave no doubt on this subject. He remarked that the circum- 
stance of their having patiently submitted so long to the ag- 
gressions made upon their commerce and the property of her 
citizens, as well as the appointment of this extraordinary mis- 
sion, under the circumstances, afforded the strongest proof of 
this disposition ; but if France would consider nothing as an 
evidence of this friendship short of the performance of an act 
which would not only exceed their instructions, but operate 
most injuriously upon their country, he could only say, that, 
while they would take no step to provoke further differences, 
they would, at the same time, abstain from being privy to 
any act in secret which, if made public, would compromise 
the neutrality it was so greatly to the interest of the United 
States government to maintain. He continued, that if the 
United States were actually leagued with France in war at 
this moment, inasmuch as they had neither ships nor men to 
be engaged in it, they must, from necessity, furnish money ; 
therefore, to furnish money now, to be expended in the war, 



276 MARSHALL. [1798. 

was in fact to depart from neutrality and become a belligerant 
power. He had no doubt, however, if France would remove 
her interdict to their commerce, the American government 
would furnish the supplies at St. Domingo more abundantly 
than they were required ; and if the loan was to be really 
payable after the war had terminated, no difference need exist 
on that point. 

Upon taking leave, after an interview of an hour's length, 
Talleyrand again alluded to the circumstance of their not 
visiting him, and said that their not having had an audience 
with the Directory, need not have prevented it. 

Marshall told him that it was a matter of no moment, 
whether they saw the Directory or not — that they were per- 
fectly indifferent on that head ; but that they conceived that 
until their public character was recognized by some competent 
authority as the representatives of their government, they 
might, in attempting to act as its ministers, subject themselves 
to unpleasant circumstances, they would not be willing to sub- 
mit to. Talleyrand admitted the force of this remark, but 
said they might nevertheless discuss the subjects of difference 
as private individuals. 

Another interview was asked and granted on the sixth at 
half past eleven o'clock, at which hour the commissioners 
again waited upon him. This interview, like the former ones, 
resulted in nothing definite. At its close, the ministers in- 
formed Talleyrand that two of their number would leave for 
America immediately, and lay the whole case before their own 
government if this course would be agreeable to the Directory, 
otherwise they would delay their return for some time longer. 
To this suggestion Talleyrand made no reply, but addressed 



^T. 42.] MINISTERS' REPLY. 277 

to them an answer to their letter of the 17th of January, dated 
the 18th of March, 1798, in which, after very cautiously ex- 
pressing himself on some of the points at issue, he adds : 

" It is therefore, only in order to smooth the way of dis- 
cussions that the undersigned has entered into the preceding 
explanations. It is with the same view, that he declares to 
the commissioners and envoys extraordinary, that notwith- 
standing the kind of prejudice which has been entertained 
with respect to them, the Executive Directory is disposed to 
treat with that one of the three whose opinions, presumed to 
be more impartial, promise in the course of the explanations, 
more of that reciprocal confidence, which is indispenable." 

This drew from the ministers a second letter, likewise pre- 
pared by Marshall, and stamped with the same great reasoning 
powers and skilful diplomacy which characterised his former 
one, and closes with the following words : 

"The undersigned observe with infinite regret, that the dis- 
position manifested to treat with the minister who might be 
selected by this government, is not accompanied with any 
assurances of receding from those demands of money, hereto- 
fore made the consideration on which alone a cessation of 
hostility on American commerce could be obtained, to which 
the undersigned have not the power to accede, with which 
the United States will find it extremely difficult to comply, 
and a compliance with which would violate that faith pledged 
for the observance of neutrality, and would involve them in 
a disastrous war, with which they have no concern. Nor do 
you answer to the applications which have been made for 
compensation to the citizens of tlie United States for property 
which shall be proved to have been taken contrary to the law 



278 MARSHALL. [1798. 

of nations and existing treaties, otherwise than that you are 
willing to discuss cases where thei-e has been a departure 
from certain principles, which principles in fact, involve al- 
most every case. 

" You have signified, citizen minister, that the Executive 
Directory is disposed to treat with one of the envoys, and 
you hope that this overture will not be attended on the part 
of the undersigned with any serious difficulty. Every propo- 
sition of the Executive Directory is considered with the most 
minute and respectful attention. The result of a deliberation 
on this point is, that no one of the undersigned is authorised 
to take upon himself a negotiation evidently entrusted by the 
tenor of their powers and instructions, to the whole, nor are 
there any two of them who can propose to withdraw them- 
selves from the task committed to them by their government, 
while there remains a possibility of performing it. 

"It is hoped that the prejudices said to have been con- 
ceived against the ministers of the United States, will be dis- 
sipated by the truths they have stated. 

" If in this hope they should be disappointed, and it should 
be the will of the Directory to order passports for the whole 
or any number of them, you will please to accompany such 
passports with letters of safe conduct, which will entirely 
protect from the cruisers of France, the vessels in which they 
may respectively sail, and give to their persons, suite and 
property, that perfect security to which the laws and usage of 
nations entitle them." 

The two members of the commission above alluded to, 
with whom Talleyrand had little hope of negotiating, were 
Pinckney and Marshall. That there might be no question as 



^T. 42.] DEPARTURE FROM FRANCE. 279 

to this, he addressed the following letter to Mr. Gerry, dated 
the 3d of April, 1798 : 

" I suppose, sir, that Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall have 
thought it useful and proper, in consequence of intimations 
given in the end of my note, of the 28th of Ventose last, and 
ihe obstacles which their known opinions have interposed to 
the desired reconciliation, to quit the territory of the Republic. 
On this supposition, I have the honor to point out to you the 
)th or the 7th of this decade, to resume our reciprocal com- 
munications upon the interests of the French Republic and 
he United States of America. 

" Receive I pray you, the assurances of my perfect con- 
sideration. C. H. Mau Talleyrand." 

This drew from Mr. Gerry a reply, in which he declined 
to be the medium of conveying the unpleasant intelligence it 
contained to his colleagues, or to take any measures that 
would be painful to them, informing him that it would be in- 
consistent with the line of conduct he had always observed, 
to remove the prejudice on the part of the government against 
them. He further stated that Marshall was waiting with 
great impatience for an answer to that part of their joint letter 
relating to safe conduct, in order to determine whether he 
should embark from France or Great Britain. 

It was not the purpose either of the Directory or their min- 
ister, to furnish Marshall with the desired passport, and they 
hoped by retaining it to induce him to leave France without 
the odium of sending him away. Shortly after the date of 
this letter, Marshall embarked for America, and arrived at 
New York on the 17th of June, 1798. 

The lengthy and curious despatches of the ministers had been 



280 MARSHALL. [1798. 

unexpectedly communicated to Congress and published, crea- 
ting a warm sympathy for the ministers, and a feeling of great 
indignation against the French Directory. His return to his 
native land, therefore, was a time of great rejoicing. On his 
arrival at Philadelphia, he was escorted by the military of the 
city to his lodgings, and partook of a dinner given to him by 
the members of both houses of Congress, at which the cele- 
brated toast, " Millions for defence, not one cent for tribute," 
was drank. 

Jefferson, in a letter to Madison, strongly tinctured by the 
politics of the day, thus speaks of his arrival at Philadelphia : 
" Marshall was received here with the utmost eclat. The 
Secretary of State and many carriages, with all the city cav- 
alry, went to Frankfort to meet him, and on his arrival here, 
the bells rang till late in the night, and immense crowds were 
collected to see, and make part of the show, which was cir- 
cuitously paraded through the streets, before he was set down 
at the city tavern." 

The government was accused by its opponents of making 
the most of this affair, for the purpose of influencing the elec- 
tions, and retaining itself in power. Jeflerson, writing to 
Gerry, says, " It was truly a God-send to them and they 
made the most of it. Many thousand copies were printed 
and dispersed gratis, at the public expense, and the zealots 
for war co-operated so heartily, that there were instances of 
single individuals who printed and dispersed ten or twelve 
thousand copies at their own expense." That the government 
was extremely indignant, and manifested a disposition to 
close the negotiations abruptly, is evident from the following 
extract from a letter transmitted to Mr. Gerry by the Secre- 



VEt. 42.] ARRIVAL — REJOICING. 281 

tary of State, on Mr. Marshall's arrival. " The respect due 
to yourselves and to your country, irresistibly required that 
you should turn your backs to a government that treated both 
with contempt, a contempt not diminished but aggravated by 
the flattering but insidious distinction in your favor, in dispar- 
agement of men of such respectable talents, untainted honor, 
and pure patriotism, as Generals Pinckney and Marshall, in 
M^hom their government and their country repose entire con- 
fidence, and especially when the real object of that distinction 
was to enable the French government, trampling on the au- 
thority and dignity of our own, lo designate an envoy with 
whom they would condescend to negotiate. It is therefore to 
be regretted, that you did not concur with your colleagues in 
demanding passports to quit the territories of the French Re- 
public, some time before they left Paris." 

It may be proper to remark that when an unexpected pub- 
licity was given to these proceedings by the course of the 
American government, the French government denied any 
participation in it, and represented the American ministers as 
the dupes to a set of intriguers ; but whoever will dispassion 
ately examine the detailed statement of this affair, must ar- 
rive at the conclusion of the Secretary of State in his elabo 
rate report concerning it, that the whole proceeding was car- 
ried on with the aid and connivance of the Executive Directory 
of France, and that Mr. Belamy, Hautville, and others, com- 
municated to the American ministers no more than they were 
authorised to do by their minister of exterior relations, Talley- 
rand. No other possible reason can be assigned for the unex- 
ampled course of the Directory, in refusing to receive the 
ministers, aad being always on the point of sending them 
36 



282 MARSHALL. [1799. 

away, and yet in keeping them for months, suspended in this 
doubtful and awkward position, except to give their agents an 
opportunity to urge the acceptance of what Talleyrand justly 
designates "the disgusting proposition for money, for cor- 
rupt distribution," and it was because two of them, Marshall 
and Pinckney, were found to be superior to those intrigues, 
that they were sent away loaded with every species of indig- 
nity it was in the jDower of the officials of the Directory to 
heap upon them. It was also in the hope of obtaining a more 
ready acquiescence from Mr. Gerry, who Talleyrand remarked 
was too "indecisive and irresolute," that he was retained. 

The party lines which had existed in the United States 
from the cessation of hostilities with England, had now be- 
come more distinct, and the feeling of animosity more mani- 
fest than at any previous period. The federalists, at the 
head of whom stood Adams, Hamilton, and Jay, were op- 
posed by the republicans led on by Jefferson, Madison and 
Gallatin. The federalists, who at the time held possession 
of the government, were exceedingly anxious to induce a rup- 
ture with the French government, and were accused by their 
enemies of favoring the English pretensions, while the re- 
publican party as anxiously endeavored to maintain friendly 
relations with the former power, and were as vehemently as- 
sailed as being allied to the Jacobins of France. As usually 
happens during the excitement of high party times, the views 
and intentions of both parties were greatly misrepresented, 
and it only required union of effort to repel an invasion from 
without, to show the honorable sentiments which actuated the 
leaders of both these great parties. The communications of 
the American ministers at Paris, perhaps unwisely made 



iEx. 43.] POLITICAL EVENTS. 283 

public, on the eve of the elections, produced an excitement 
more intense than any thing which had occurred since the 
declaration of the independence, and it required all the 
energy of the able leaders of the republican party, to prevent 
this inflammable material from lighting the whole country anew 
in the blaze of warfare, in the performance of which task they 
felt themselves obliged to throw a suspicion on the motives of 
Marshall and Pinckney, not justified by the dispassionate 
views we are enabled to take of the subject at this distant 
period. That it was clearly the policy of the American gov- 
ernment, notwithstanding the injuries under which she was 
smarting, to abstain from open hostilities at that particular 
moment, and that the observance of this policy has had the 
effect of disentangling it from foreign alliances, is now too 
evident to admit of a doubt. 

The struggle for political power between these two great 
parties was wrought up to the highest possible point of endu- 
rance about the time of Marshall's return to America ; and so 
important were his political services considered to the feder- 
alists, with whom he was allied, that he was prevailed upon 
to relinquish the intention he had formed to abandon public 
life, and enter the political field as a candidate for Congress. 
He succeeded in obtaining his election, and became a partici- 
pant in those exciting struggles which, in the winter of 1799 and 
1800, terminated in the complete overthrow of the party then in 
power, and the triumph of those republican principles which, 
with a few brief exceptions, have continued to regulate the des- 
tinies of the country from that day until the present moment. 

One of his first public duties, after the assembling of that 
body, was to announce the decease of his illustrious friend 



284 MARSHALL. [1799. 

General Washington, whose ilhiess had been of such short 
duration that the news of his decease, which took place on 
the 14th of December, 1799, reached the capital before the 
announcement of his indisposition- The melancholy tidings 
were brought by a stage passenger, and produced, when com- 
municated from member to member through the house, a 
scene of the deepest sorrow and confusion, amid which Mar- 
shall arose, and, in a voice trembling with emotion, alluded to 
the afflicting news just received, and added that " after re- 
ceiving intelligence of a national calamity so heavy and 
afflicting, the House of Representatives can be but ill fitted 
for public business," and he therefore moved an adjournment. 

On the succeeding day, after the reading of the journal, 
Marshall addressed to the house the following chaste and ap- 
propriate tribute to the memory of the illustrious deceased : 

" The melancholy event which was yesterday announced 
with doubt has been rendered but too certain. Our Wash- 
ington is no more ! The hero, the patriot, and the sage of 
America — the man on whom, in time of danger, every eye 
was turned and all hopes were placed — lives now only in his 
own great actions, and in the hearts of an affectionate and 
afflicted people. 

" If, sir, it had even not been usual openly to testify respect 
for the memory of those whom Heaven has selected as its 
instruments for dispensing good to man, yet, such has been 
the uncommon worth, and such the extraordinary incidents 
which have marked the life of him whose loss we deplore, 
that the whole American nation, impelled by the same feel- 
ings, would call with one voice for a public manifestation of 
that sorrow which is so deep and so universal. 



JEt. 43.] EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. 285 

" More than any other individual, as much as to one indi- 
vidual was possible, has he contributed to found this, our 
wide-spreading empire, and to give to the Western World 
independence and freedom. 

" Having effected the great object for which he was placed 
at the head of our armies, we have seen him convert the 
sword into the ploughshare, and sink the soldier into the 
citizen. 

" When the debility of our federal system had become 
manifest, and the bonds which connected this vast continent 
were dissolving, we have seen him the chief of those patriots 
who formed for us a constitution which, by preserving the 
Union, will, I trust, substantiate and perpetuate those blessings 
which our revolution has promised to bestow. 

" In obedience to the general voice of his country calling 
him to preside over a great people, we have seen him once 
more quit the retirement he loved, and, in a season more 
stormy and tempestuous than war itself, with calm and wise 
determination, pursue the true interests of the nation, and 
contribute more than any other could contribute to the estab- 
lishment of that system of policy which will, I trust, yet pre- 
serve our peace, our honor and our independence. 

" Having been twice unanimously chosen the Chief Magis- 
trate of a free people, we have seen him, at a time when his 
re-election with universal suffrage could not be doubted, afford 
to the world a rare instance of moderation, by withdrawing 
from his high station to the peaceful walks of private life. 

" However the public confidence may change and the pub- 
lic affection fluctuate with respect to others, with respect to 
him they have, in war and in peace, in public and in private 



286 MARSHALL. [1799. 

life, been as steady as his own linn mind, as constant as his 
own exalted virtues, 

" Let us, then, Mr. Speaker, pay the last tribute of respect 
and affection to our departed friend ; let the Grand Council of 
the nation display those sentiments which the nation feels. 
For this purpose, I hold in ray hand some resolutions which 
I take the liberty of offering to the house." 

With this brief but comprehensive exordium, he presented 
those resolutions, framed by General Lee, who was not in his 
seat at the time the intelligence of his death reached the 
house, and afterwards placed them in the hands of Marshall, 
in which the memorable and appropriate words occur, '^ first 
in war, first inpeace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.'^ 

In alluding to this circumstance a few years later, in his 
Life of Washington, with an unaffected modesty peculiar to 
him, he takes care to give General Lee full credit for the au- 
thorship of the resolutions, but entirely abstains from any 
mention of his own name in connexion with the event. 

" The House of Representatives," remarks Mr. Binney, in 
his chaste eulogium on Judge Marshall, " in which Mr. Mar- 
shall had a seat, was perhaps never exceeded in the number 
of its accomplished debaters, or in the spirit with which they 
contended for the prize of public approbation. It was the 
last which convened in this city,* and furnished a continual 
banquet to such as had the taste to relish the encounter of 
minds of the first order stimulated to their highest efforts and 
sustained by the mutual consciousness of patriotic motives. 
The course of this eminent man as a member of it was such as 
all impartial persons must review without a censure. His 

* Philadelphia. 



tEt. 43.] DEBATE ON THE NASH CASE. 287 

principles of government were fixed, his confidence in the 
administration was great, his apprehensions of public mischief 
from a radical change of its measures were sincere, and he 
neither deviated from the path which these sentiments pre- 
scribed, nor faltered in it. But there was that about him 
which defended him from the assaults of party and raised him 
above its suspicions. If he was a party man, he was so by 
position, and not from temper or political views." 

In these debates, in which the measures of the administra- 
tion were assailed and defended with all the skill and ability 
which men of the highest order of talents could bring to bear 
upon them, Marshall took a prominent part, but there was one 
occasion on which his great reasoning powers stood forth more 
prominently than on any other. This was in the debate on 
the resolutions offered by Edward Livingston, of New York, 
censuring the Executive for the course pursued in the case 
of Nash, as contrary to law, and not justified by the treaty 
stipulations with Great Britain. The state of the case was 
this : a seaman, by the name of Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan 
Robbins, was accused of having been one of a party who com- 
mitted a murder on board of the English war vessel, Her- 
mione, while at sea, and of having afterwards sought refuge 
in the United States. Nash was traced to South Carolina, 
and was said to be identified as one of the murderers, although 
he bore the name of Jonathan Robbins, and claimed to be a 
native of Danbury, Connecticut, and an impressed seaman. 
Under these circumstances, the resident minister of England 
near the government of the United States, demanded Nash, 
as a fugitive from justice, under the 27th article of the treaty 
of 1794, entered into between the two governments. 



288 MARSHALL. [1800. 

He was apprehended, and the case was brought up before 
the United States District Judge of South Carolina, on a writ 
of habeas corpus. The evidence of his identity with Thomas 
Nash, appeared conclusive to the Judge, and under the di- 
rections of the President he was handed over to the British 
authorities, tried and executed. 

The public mind, keenly sensitive to the subject of im- 
pressment, was greatly inflamed by the strictures of the oppo- 
sition press, who thought the case not so clear as either 
the judge or the executive, and the mist which enshrouded 
it, subsequently dissipated, led many of the opposition to 
assume a strong ground, and hence the introduction of the 
resolutions which were advocated with great ability by Liv- 
ingston, Gallatin and Nicholas on the one side, and Bayard 
and Marshall upon the other. No subject could have been 
more appropriate for Marshall than this, inasmuch as it em- 
braced within its range of inquiry, an examination into the 
theory on which the laws of nations was founded, the prin- 
ciples which governed their diplomatic intercourse, the weight 
and exposition of treaties, and the extent of the authority 
confided in the executive department of the general govern- 
ment to execute them. 

Judge Story pronounces it to be " one of the most consum- 
mate judicial arguments which was ever pronounced in the 
halls of legislation," and says of it that like Lord Mansfield's 
celebrated answer to the Prussian memorial, it was " Reponse 
sans repliquer, an answer so irresistible that it admitted no 
reply." The argument was conclusive, and settled then and 
forever this abstruse point of international law. 

Jefferson, in a letter to Madison, writes, " The question has 



^T. 44.] APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE. 289 

been decided to-day, on Livingston's motion respecting Rob- 
bins : thirty-five for it, about sixty against it. Livingston, Nich- 
olas and Gallatin distinguished themselves on one side, and 
J. Marshall greatly on the other." 

Upon the rupture betwixt the President and his cabinet, 
which resulted in the removal from office of Mr. McHenry. 
Secretary of War, in May, 1800, Marshall was selected to fill 
his place. He had scarcely received the appointment, before 
the office of the Secretary of State became vacant from a 
similar cause, and the President conferred the appointment 
upon him. His official duties in the capacity of a cabinet jnin- 
ister were of short duration, as he was soon after selected to 
fill the more congenial as well as the more important public 
station, of Chief Justice of the United States. The circum- 
stances under which this appointment was conferred upon him 
were peculiarly gratifying, and manifest the high appreciation 
in which his character and services were held by the Presi- 
dent and the Senate. When the Chief Justiceship became 
vacant by the resignation of Judge Ellsworth, then in Europe, 
the President, with the advice of Marshall, offered the ap- 
pointment to Mr. Jay, who declined accepting it. Without 
further consultation he returned the name of Marshall to the 
Senate as his successor, which body unanimously confirmed 
his nomination, and he was appointed Chief Justice on the 
31st of January, 1801. 

We have traced his progress through varied paths, requiring 
great energy of character, fixedness of purpose, and high 
intellectual attainments, and in all we have found him occu- 
pying a prominent, and in many, the foremost position, but 
none of these presented the difficulties and responsibilities 
37 



290 MARSHALL. [180L 

which met him at the outset of his career as the Chief Justice 
of the United States, 

When he entered upon the discharge of its duties, the 
constitution, upon whose correct interpretation the value and 
justice of so many of its decisions depended, had as yet to be 
expounded. As a declaratory instrument, although usually 
expressed in a clear and unambiguous language, it admitted 
of a variety of interpretations, made more complex, by the 
sophistry with which ingenious argument had enshrouded its 
true meaning and intention. Its discussion had hitherto been 
rather of a legislative than of a judicial character, and it had 
much more frequently occupied the mind of the statesman 
than of the magistrate. 

He had therefore to mark out a path for himself. That 
constitutional law now so clear and lucid in its expositions as 
to furnish unerring landmarks for the guidance of the legal 
profession was then in its infancy. Without precedents — 
without the aid of prior decisions or analogous cases — without 
the carefully digested opinions of able judges to throw light 
ujjon their minds in perplexity, or sustain them by inspiring a 
confidence in their own judgments — the court over which he 
presided assumed the responsibility of deciding questions not 
only of private importance and vast extent, but involving the 
very permanency of the union itself. 

Tor the discharge of a duty so important as the presiding 
officer of such a tribunal, he was peculiarly fitted by his va- 
ried stores of legal learning, and the care he had previously 
taken to ascertain the true meaning and intent of the consti- 
tution. There were other qualities no less necessary, which 
he possessed in an eminent degree. He was conscientiously 



^T. 45.] SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION. 291 

faithful in the discharge of his judicial functions, patient in 
investigat'on, untiring in research, and unwavering in decision. 
To this rare combination, he joined to the most urbane and 
courteous manners, the simplest and most unaffected deport- 
ment. 

If under these circumstances, errors in judgment were 
sometimes committed, and it will not be pretended that Judge 
Marshall and his able associates were infallible, or that their 
legal opinions have always been sustained, it was no more 
than was to be expected from the weakness of human in- 
firmity, even when that weakness was counterbalanced by 
the high intellectual qualifications which adorned the life and 
gave inestimable value to the services of the subject of these 
remarks.. 

The first case involving a constitutional question, which 
came before the Supreme Court, after his appointment as its 
presiding officer, was that of Marbury against Madison, in 
which he thus asserts the suj^remacy of the constitution: 

" The question, whether an act repugnant to the constitu- 
tion, can become the law of the land, is a question deeply in- 
teresting to the United States ; but happily not of an intricacy 
proportioned to its interest. It seems only to recognize cer- 
tain principles, supposed to have been long and well estab- 
lished to decide it. 

"That the people have an original right to establish for 
their future government, such principles as in their opinion 
shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis on 
which the whole American fabric has been erected. The ex- 
ercise of this original right is a very great exertion ; nor can 
it, nor ought it to be frequently repeated. The principles, 



292 MARSHALL. [1801. 

therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as 
the authority from which they proceed is supreme, and can 
seldom act, they are designed to be permanent. 

" This original and supreme will organizes the government, 
and assigns to different departments their respective powers. 
It may either stop here, or establish certain limits not to be 
transcended by those departments. 

" The government of the United States is of the latter de- 
scription. The powers of the legislature are defined and lim- 
ited, and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, 
the constitution is written. To what purpose are powers 
limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to 
writing, if these limits may at any time be passed by those 
intended to be restrained ? The distinction between a gov- 
ernment with limited and unlimited powers is abolished, if 
those limits do not confine the persons on whom they are im- 
posed, and if acts prohibited and acts allowed, are of equal 
obligation. It is a proposition too plain to be contested, that 
the constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it, or 
that the legislature may alter the constitution by an ordinary act. 

" Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. 
The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchange- 
able by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legis- 
tive acts, and like other acts, it is alterable, when the legisla- 
ture shall please to alter it. 

" If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legis- 
lative act contrary to the constitution is not law ; if the latter 
part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts on 
the part of the people to limit a power in its own nature 
illimitable. 



^T. 45.] MIDNIGHT APPOINTMENTS. 293 

" Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions, 
contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount 
law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such 
government must be that an act of the legislature repugnant 
to the constitution is void. 

" This theory is essentially attached to a written constitu- 
tion, and is consequently to be considered by this court as one 
of the fundamental principles of our society." 

Notwithstanding the closeness of reasoning and careful ap- 
plication of deduction in the above syllogistical statement, he 
has been accused, with some show of reason, of leaving the 
plain beaten path in which his case lay, to start suggestions 
from which conclusions might have followed, if the case had 
assumed a different aspect, or the court had possessed different 
powers. The very case before us furnishes an example of 
this mode of erratic reasoning and suggestive argument. 

Mr. Adams, among a number of appointments made at the 
close of his presidency, and denominated midnight appoint- 
ments, commissioned Mr. Marbury to act as a justice of the 
peace for the county of Washington. Mr. Jefferson found 
these appointments already signed and sealed, on the table of 
the Department of State, and directed his Secretary of State, 
Madison, not to deliver them. A writ of mandamus was 
applied for to the secretary, to direct him to deliver up the 
commission. The decision of the court was, that as it was 
an original process, they had no cognizance over it. Mr. 
Marshall in his opinion, goes on to say, that had the court this 
cognizance they should direct this delivery to be made. The 
second proposition is entirely gratuitous, because the case had 
not arisen, and could only have been intended to influence 



294 MARSHALL. [1803. 

the decision of some other court having the competent jurisdic- 
tion. It is not oar purpose however, to analyze these nu- 
merous decisions in which, during his chief-justiceship, the 
court took cognizance of a greater number of questions affect- 
ing the constitution than can possibly arise again, and settled 
upon a permanent basis the principles of the constitution de- 
vised for the purpose of giving security to property, and pro- 
moting intercourse and trade between different States of the 
Union. 

There are two of these decisions to which we would casu- 
ally allude, on account of the great importance of the interests 
involved. The first of these is that of Dartmouth College, in 
which the following lucid exposition of that abstract pheno- 
menon, a corporation, is given : 

" A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, 
and existing only in contemplation of law. Being the mere 
creature of law, it possesses only those properties which the 
charter of its creation confers upon it, either expressly, or as 
incidental to its very existence. These are such as are sup- 
posed best calculated to effect the object for which it was 
created — among the most important are, immortality, and if 
the expression may be allowed, individuality, properties by 
which a perpetual succession of many persons are considered 
as the same, and may act as a single individual." 

The question in this case was, whether the law of the State 
abolishing its old charter and substituting a new one was un- 
constitutional or not. The court decided that it was, and 
restored the college to its former privileges and immunities, 
thus securing from political influence or private intrigue those 
corporate endowments for public good either of charity or edu- 



.Ex. 47.] RIGHTS OK THE STATES. 295 

cation, so beneficial to society and so worthy of the generous 
motives which inspired them, which are found scattered by 
the hand of generous benevolence throughout our land. 

The second is that of Cohen against the State of Virginia, 
in which two questions arose : first, whether a State could be 
brought as a defendant before the Supreme Court ; second, 
whether Congress could pass an act authorizing a corporation 
of its own creation to exercise a jurisdiction within a State 
paramount to the laws of the State. On both of these points 
the court decided in the affirmative. This decision, which 
may be considered one of the capital errors of Marshall's 
legal judgments, was far from being tamely acquiesced in by 
the State of Virginia, whose legislature prepared remon- 
strances against it, which were only delayed in their presen- 
tation by the exciting question of admitting Missouri into the 
Union, which immediately followed upon it, and diverted the 
thoughts of her legislature into a new channel. 

This opinion was opposed by Roane, in a paper written with 
such ability that the original framer of the constitution, Jeffer- 
son, said that if it could be refuted, or the opinion of Marshall 
sustained, he would surrender human reason as a vain and 
useless faculty, given to bewilder and not to guide. The im- 
portant point at issue was the constitutional boundaries be- 
twixt the general and State governments, and where the 
power of the one begun and the other terminated. 

This decision furnishes a striking illustration of the inability 
of the wisest statesman to foresee the ultimate result of his own 
political inventions. It could hardly have been believed that, 
with the jealousies prevailing among the State governments 
against the general government, and with the known opinion 



296 M A U S II A L L 



that the State authorities reserved to themselves all powers 
not expressly delegated by that instrument, that within thirty 
years from its adoption the Supreme Court of the United 
States should feel itself authorized to interfere with the do- 
mestic concerns of a State, and direct the course of justice 
betwixt itself and its own citizens. 

No one will hesitate to award to Marshall the possession of 
that comprehensive and unclouded intellect, that great good 
sense, that luminous power of ratiocination, or that perspicu- 
ity, force, and strength which placed him by the side of Lord 
Mansfield, and made him inferior to no judge that ever lived. 
But with the possession of these high attributes he likewise 
bore those prejudices almost inseparable from humanity. In 
politics he was a stern and uncompromising federalist. "In 
the maintenance of the principles of that school," says one 
who knew him well, " he was ready at all times to stand 
forth a determined advocate and supporter. On this subject 
he scorned all disguise, he affected no change of opinion, he 
sought no shelter from i-eproach." Whatever errors clouded 
his judgment or warped his reason, in the examination 
and preparation of those decisions on which he wished 
his memory to rest, may be traceable to this source, and to 
this alone. After a careful examination of this subject, we 
must acquit Marshall of having formed or expressed one legal 
principle, in his capacity as a judge, from party motives ; but 
at the same time, candor compels us to add, that the influence 
of party prejudices, insensibly to himself, occasionally crept 
in and marred the beauty of those otherwise luminous legal 
decisions. 

He discovered in the prerogatives of the high court over 



LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 297 



which he presided a supreme power to declare and enforce 
the doctrines of a delegated one, supreme in itself so far as 
its boundaries extended, and with a disposition not to usurp 
that which had not been granted, he united a determination 
to be satisfied with nothing less than its just and full propor- 
tions. That this imaginary boundary might have been ex- 
tended, nay, that it has been so, under the sanction of the 
high authority and commanding ability which presided over it,, 
the history of the constitutional jurisprudence of the United 
States will bear ample testimony. 

The laborious duties of the bench, during the early part of 
Marshall's judicial career, were shared with the no less arduous 
ones of literary composition. On him devolved the task of 
preparing a life of his illustrious and devoted friend, Wash- 
ington, and most earnestly did he apply himself to the per- 
formance of this sacred obligation. 

In its inception he discovered that the life of Washington 
was so closely identified with the history of the colonies, and 
so interwoven with public affairs, that it would be incomplete 
without a perspicuous account of the rise, progress, and con- 
dition of the colonies, and a detail of those transactions, in 
which he either became a participant or adviser. 

This view led to the preparation of the History of the Colo- 
nies, which originally appeared as an introduction to the Life 
of Washington, but has since been published as a separate 
work. 

"Our ideas of America," he remarks in the preface to a 

subsequent edition of this work, ''' of the character of our 

Revolution, of those who engaged in it, and of the struggles 

by which it was accomplished, would be imperfect without 

38 



298 MARSHALL. 

some knowledge of our colonial hi&tory. No work had been 
published when this Avas undertaken, from which that know- 
ledge could be collected. To have taken up the history of 
the United States when the command of the army was con- 
ferred on General Washington, would have been to introduce 
the reader abruptly in the midst of scenes and transactions, 
with the causes of which, and with the actors in them, he 
would naturally wish to be intimately acquainted. This was 
the apology of the author for the introductory volume to the 
Life of General Washington. Had the essays since written 
towards a general history of the English colonies, been then 
in the possession of the public, this volume would not have 
appeared." 

The volume to which he thus modestly alludes, was followed 
by four others, devoted to the life of Washington, and the po- 
litical events that environed him. The first of these was 
published in 1803, the last in 1807, and the whole occupied his 
leisure from the time he assumed his judicial functions, until 
their final completion. Subsequent editions have from time 
to time been published, and they are now, and probably al- 
ways will be considered as standard works, on the subject of 
which they treat. 

The peculiarities of their author are manifest on every 
page. There is no attempt to dazzle by studied elegance, 
harmonious diction, or brilliant ornament, but they are written 
in a plain and unpretending style, substantiated by historical 
facts, and possess great weight on account of conclusions so 
well drawn as to be extremely difficult of resistance, even 
when not borne out by their antecedent propositions. His 
own reflections are presented in such an unostentatious mode 



CHARACTEll. 299 

as not to offend, but to add a charm to the facts he narrates ; 
j^et while we must admit their ability, and the candor with 
which they are expressed, we cannot deny, that like some of 
his legal opinions, they are colored by the political sentiments 
which were so firmly rooted in his breast. 

From the date of his appointment until his decease, which 
took place on the 6th day of July, 1835, embracing a period 
of nearly thirty-five years, he continued to preside over the 
deliberations of that court, of which he was the brightest 
ornament. During this period of his chief-justiceship, which 
was longer than that of any other high judicial functionary 
with whose history we are acquainted, he was unremittingly 
employed in rearing that monument more durable than brass, 
which lives in his written constitutional opinions, and has 
won for him the title of the Expounder or the Constitution. 

We know of no language in which to delineate his private 
character more forcible than the following description from 
the pen of his intimate friend and old associate, Judge Story. 
" He had great simplicity of character, manners, dress and 
deportment ; and yet with a natural dignity that suppressed 
impertinence and silenced rudeness. His simplicity was 
never accompanied with that want of perception of what was 
right, and fit for the occasion ; of that grace which wins re- 
spect, or that propriety which constitutes the essence of re- 
fined courtesy. And yet it had an exquisite naivete which 
charmed every one, and gave a sweetness to his familiar con- 
versations, approaching to fascination. The first impression 
of a stranger upon his introduction to him, was generally that 
of disappointment. It seemed hardly credible, that such sim- 
plicity should be the accompaniment of such acknowledged 



300 MARSHALL, 



greatness. The consciousness of power was not there ; the 
air of office was not there ; there was no play of the lights or 
shades of rank ; no study of effect in tone or bearing. You 
saw at once that he never thought of himself, and that he 
was far more anxious to know others than to be known by 
them. You quitted him with increased reverence for human 
greatness, for in him it seemed inseparable from goodness. 
If vanity stood abashed in his presence, it was not that he 
rebuked it, but that his example showed its utter nothingness." 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE, L. L. D, 



It was the proud distinction of the seventeenth century, 
to bear witness to the most brilliant series of astronomical dis- 
coveries known in the entire history of the science. The 
culminated labors of previous ages, the establishment of sci- 
entific societies under the auspices of the enlightened gov- 
ernments of Europe, and the erection of royal astronomical 
observatories, had so far enlarged the plan of observation as 
to render its facts practicably applicable in the development 
of new phenomena and laws on a comprehensive scale hith- 
erto unknown. The royal observatory at Paris, under La 
Hire and Cassini, and that at Greenwich, under Flamstead 
and Halley, had done much towards concentrating the known 
truths of the science preparatory to a series of events which 
may be said not only to have established a new era in as- 
tronomy, but to have developed a new science, destined to 
assume a more boundless range and loftier flight than any 
other department of known physical knowledge. These were 
the discovery of the doctrine of gravitation, by Newton, and 
the invention of fluxions by Newton and Leibnitz. The re- 
sults flowing from the establishment of these truths, rendered 
this age a more brilliant one in physical science than any 
which had preceded it, or can probably occur again. In the 
age immediately succeeding this, and while most of the doc- 



302 RITTENHOUSE. 



trines of Newton were newly promulgated, and many of them 
held in dispute, America gave birth to a philosopher, whose 
introduction into the portals of science is so peculiar, as to 
merit a special attention. 

This philosopher, whose name was David Rittenhouse, 
was born on the 8th of April, 1732, at Germantown, near 
Philadelphia, where his father exercised the craft of a paper 
maker. This occupation appears to have been an hereditary 
one in the family for many successive generations, and was 
transferred with them as a part of their patrimony, to the 
new world, from the ancient city of Arnheim, upon the Rhine. 

Rittenhouse's ancestors emigrated to America at a very 
early period, probably as early as the year 1674. They ac- 
companied a colony of Flemings, who settled at New York, 
but about 1690 transferred their residence to Pennsylvania, 
and established their paper mills at Germantown, where one 
or the other of the family has since continued to reside, en- 
gaged in the same time honored trade with their ancestors. 

While David Rittenhouse was yet an infant, his father 
abandoned the business of paper making to his relatives, and 
removed to Norristown, about twenty miles distant from Phil- 
adelphia, where he purchased a small farm. Here David 
sprang into boyhood under the guidance of an exceedingly 
benevolent, but simple minded parent, whose ideas were 
limited to the few acres he was content to cultivate. 

Mr. Barton, with an industry worthy of commendation, has 
traced back the family of Rittenhouse to the old walled city 
upon the Rhine, in the vain endeavor of upturning some long 
forgotten baronial trunk, Avhereby to connect it with a lineage 
more noble, if not more worthy, but his labors have terminated. 



PARENTAGE. 303 



as we imagine the subject of this memoir would have desired 
them to terminate, in the discovery that the chief pride of 
the family consisted in the excellence of the material they 
were skilled in making, and that they boasted no higher dis- 
tinction than that of simple burghers of Arnheim. 

The mother of Rittenhouse, whose maiden name was Eliza- 
beth Williams, was of Welch extraction, and was left an or- 
phan at a very tender age. She is represented to have been 
possessed of a strong, but uncultivated mind. Her natural 
endowments were certainly superior to those of her husband's, 
but were neither polished nor exalted by the skill of educa- 
tion. Nothing appears to show that her family possessed any 
greater claim to distinction than that of the Rittenhouse's, and 
the mind of the philosopher seems to have risen like some 
tall oak to a towering height above all those with whom it 
was allied by birth or kindred. 

David was intended by his father for the same occupation 
as himself, and it was not without many struggles that the 
parent, who like most of his countrymen settled in Pennsyl- 
vania not only at that early period but at the present day, 
looked upon the life of the farmer as more ennobling than 
that of the town tradesman, at last reluctantly consented to a 
different destination for his son. 

As soon, therefore as his youthful labors could be of any 
service they were employed in assisting his father in his tasks 
of husbandry. The advantages for obtaining an education at 
the period when Rittenhouse was a youth, were exceedingly 
limited, and from those he derived but little aid beyond the 
simplest rudiments. 

When but twelve years of age young Rittenhouse fell into 



304 RITTENHOUSE 



the undisturbed possession of a chest of carpenter's tools, be- 
longing to a brother of his mother, who had died some years 
previous. This chest, in addition to these implements of trade, 
contained several elementary works on mathematical subjects, 
together with some manuscript calculations made by his de- 
ceased uncle, who had a taste for mathematics. What influ- 
ence this fortunate discovery had upon the direction of the 
thoughts of the future philosopher, it is hard to determine. 
Certain it is, it could not have fallen into better hands, or have 
been more apposite to the pursuits it aided in developing. It 
would seem that mathematics with him was an intuitive gift, 
for whilst engaged in the labors of the field, his mind, even at 
this early age, was employed with mathematical and astro- 
nomical calculations, in the ardent pursuit of which he cov- 
ered the fences as well as the handles of the plough, with 
figures, intended to demonstrate or realise the problems which 
engrossed his thoughts. 

In connexion with this mathematical turn of mind, he pos- 
sessed great mechanical ingenuity. This developed itself 
at the age of seven years, in the construction of a little water- 
wheel, of veiy creditable conception and workmanship, and 
when but seventeen years of age he had made the entire 
works of an excellent wooden clock. 

His father, who now became satisfied of his extraordinary 
mechanical genius, and perhaps of his unfitness for agricul- 
tural pursuits, yielded to the oft repeated wish of his son to 
allow him to change his occupation. He was accordingly 
supplied with means to purchase a scanty outfit in the clock 
and philosophical instrument making business, and provided 
with a workshop by the road side, upon his father's farm. 



EARLY EMPLOYMENTS. 305 



Finding his stock of tools inadequate, he fabricated new ones, 
and among them many he had never seen. This occupation 
was looked upon by him rather as a means to enable him to 
indulge his enthusiastic devotion for mathematical studies, 
than as a pursuit for life, so that the labors of the day were 
scarcely terminated, ere he began a course of severe and 
unremitting study, frequently extended long after midnight. 

While thus engaged, a young Irish clergyman of the Pro- 
testant faith, named Barton, established a school in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the Rittenhouse farm. This young gentle- 
man became intimate with the family, and a warm friend of 
David's to whom he was drawn by many kindred associations 
of thought and feeling. It has been alleged, though without 
sufficient evidence, that through this acquaintanceship, Rit- 
tenhouse' s talents were first revealed to the world, and in 
part made known to himself. It would be idle to attempt to 
prove by any serious argument, the entire and absolute inde- 
pendence of a mind constituted like that of Rittenhouse's, of 
any acquaintance it might have formed, or aid received from 
others. 

Certainly the youthful and uneducated plough boy, who 
while treading in the furrows upturned by his plough, could 
direct his thoughts to the illimitable space that reposed 
in majestic beauty over his head, not in vain and childish 
wonderment, but in anxious endeavor to read its laws and 
discover the movements that regulated its countless bodies, 
was fully equal to the task of developing the genius that in- 
spired these sublime reflections. To him, every pebble re- 
vealed by his plough-share, and every gentle flowret that grew 

in his pathway, furnished a lesson and proved an instructor. 
39 



306 RITTENHOUSE. [1753. 

That this acquaintance may have been serviceable as well as 
agreeable to both parties, is possible, but that it was the means 
of directing the genius of the youth who had already become 
known in his own neighborhood as "a mathematician and as- 
tronomer," is highly improbable. 

The ties of friendship existing betwixt these two young 
friends became still further strengthened by the marriage of 
Barton to the sister of Rittenhouse, about two years after the 
commencement of their acquaintance. This marriage took 
jilace in the year 1753. Previous to its occurrence, Barton 
had removed to Philadelphia, and became one of the instruc- 
tors in the seminary established through the exertions of 
Franklin. This seminary was the embryo of the present 
University of Pennsylvania, whose medical department at 
least, has long enjoyed a preeminence far above all similar in- 
stitutions in the United States. 

We may judge of the progress made by Rittenhouse in his 
unaided mathematical studies, by the exalted position awarded 
to him by the learned world a few years later. 

It may be proper in this connexion, to state that about the 
year 1749, this academy was established mainly through the 
instrumentality of Franklin, upon a very respectable footing, 
by resources obtained from private donations, and went into 
operation in 1750, under the superintendence of Dr. William 
Smith, its first provost, an English divine of great scientific 
attainments, who had received the degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity from the University of Oxford, and subsequently from 
those of Aberdeen and Dublin. This gentleman, as will 
shortly be seen, was among the first to welcome Rittenhouse 
into the society of the learned men of his day, and continued 



Mr. 22.] MATHEMATICAL PURSUITS. 307 

through many years, not only one of his first, but one of his 
most steadfast friends. 

It is related of Rittenhouse by his friend, Doctor Rush, 
(and generally believed,) that, during this period of his life, 
his own mathematical reasonings developed to him the doc- 
trine of fluxions, previously discovered by Newton and Leib- 
nitz, but whose works and jihilosophical developments were 
as yet unknown to him. When about twenty-five years of 
age he read for the first time a copy of a translation of New- 
ton's Principia, which, besides opening to his mind a mine of 
treasure, dispelled the pleasing dream (if ever indulged) of 
his agency in the discovery of this important mathematical 
theory. 

With the scanty information we possess of the studies of 
Rittenhouse, it is impossible to determine the exact range of 
his thoughts or the consequences that flowed from them. It 
is very certain that he brought a mind of no ordinary charac- 
ter to the severe ordeal of mathematical reasoning, and that 
this mind was unaided by much previous education or many 
present advantages. Whether incidental hints were given of 
the theory of fluxions in those mathematical treatises he was 
fortunate enough to procure, without revealing the theory or 
the means of demonstrating it, or whether this was a mere 
rumor set afloat by idle gossip, is a conjecture which, in the 
absence of positive testimony, must be left open for each 
reader to determine, or to leave undetermined, as he deems 
most proper. 

An increase of patronage soon induced Rittenhouse to ex- 
tend his establishment and employ several workmen, and 
among the rest a younger brother named Benjamin, who, 



308 RITTENHOUSE. [1763. 

under his direction, soon became an excellent instrument 
maker. David Rittenhouse was celebrated for the extreme 
exactness and finish of his workmanship, and enjoyed a high 
reputation in particular for the manufacture of chronometer 
clocks. One of these, of a construction peculiar to himself, 
is at present in the hall of the Philosophical Society at Phila- 
delphia. 

In the year 1763 he was employed by Mr. Richard Peters, 
the provincial secretary of the Governor of Pennsylvania, to 
determine the circle preparatory to a survey of the long dis- 
puted boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, 
afterwards executed by Mason and Dixon in 1767-'8, and since 
grown into great notoriety as the dividing line betwixt the 
slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States of the Union. 

In 1766 Rittenhouse was married to Miss Eleanor Coulson, 
a lady of the persuasion of " Friends," and a resident of the 
same neighborhood with himself. On this occasion his father 
abandoned the homestead, and made it a free gift to his son. 

On the 17th of November of the following year the College 
of Philadelphia bestowed upon him the honorary degree of 
Master of Arts. That he had now established a considerable 
reputation as a scientific man may be seen from the following 
extract from the address made to him by the provost on the 
occasion of conferring this honorary degree: "The trustees 
of this college, (the faculty of professors cheerfully concur- 
ring,) being ever desirous to distinguish real merit, especially 
in the natives of this province, and well assured by the extra- 
ordinary progress and improvement which you have made, by 
a felicity of natural genius, in mechanics, mathematics, astro- 
nomy, and other liberal arts and sciences, all which you have 



JEt. 32.] INVENTION OF THE ORRERY. 309 

adorned by singular modesty and irreproachable morals, have 
authorized and required me to admit you to the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts." 

His thoughts, for some time prior to this period, had been 
turned to the construction of an orrery on new principles. 
The first written communication extant on this subject is 
addressed to Mr. Barton, and appears to have been part of an 
antecedent correspondence on the same topic. It is dated 
January 28th, 1767: "I do not design a machine which will 
give the ignorant in astronomy a just view of the solar system, 
but would rather astonish the skilful and curious observer by 
a most accurate correspondence between the situations and 
motions of our little representatives of the heavenly bodies 
and the situations and motions of those bodies themselves. 
I would have my orrery really useful by making it capable of 
informing us truly of the astronomical phenomena for any 
particular point of time, which I do not find that any orrery 
yet made can do." 

. For the benefit of the general reader, we will remark that 
an orrery is an instrument or machine which, by means of a 
very complex combination of wheels, exhibits the different 
movements of the heavenly bodies. The term is derived 
from the Earl of Orrery, for whom one of those instruments 
was made by an astronomical instrument maker named Row- 
ley, to whom the credit of the invention was given by Sir 
Richard Steele, and the name applied as a compliment to his 
generous and noble patron. It appears, however, that about 
the year 1715, an instrument similar to the one executed by 
Rowley was originated and made by Mr. George Graham, for 



310 RITTENHOUSE. [1768. 

Prince Eugene, and it is generally supposed that Rowley 
merely copied it, with some additions of his own. 

Planetary machines, having the earth as a centre, were in 
use at a very early period ; but the earliest one constructed 
on Copernicus' theory of the earth's motion was planned by 
Huygens in the latter pai't of the sixteenth century. Its 
movements were regulated by a carefully calculated wheel 
work, and it received its impulsion from a spring governed 
by a balance. This machine, from which the invention of 
the more intricate one of the orrery flowed, served for a long 
time as its pattern ; indeed the principal part of every orrery 
is the wheel work of the Huygens planetarium. 

The persons who had succeeded in adding any thing to this 
instrument, before the invention of Rittenhouse's orrery, were 
the original inventor, Graham, Rowley, (of whom mention 
has already been made,) T. Wright, mathematical instrument 
maker to George 11., who constructed the beautiful orrery at 
the Richmond Observatory, England, in 1733, and Mr. Ben- 
jamin Martin, who proposed to add what he termed a tellurian 
portion, described in his Mathematical Institutions, but never 
carried into execution by him. 

A description of Rittenhouse's orrery, in general terms, 
was communicated to the American Philosophical Society on 
the 21st of March, 1768, by Dr. Smith, and appears as the 
first paper in the first volume of the Society's Transactions, 
and is as follows : 

" This machine is intended to have three faces standing 
perpendicular to the horizon. That in the front to be four 
feet square, made of sheet brass curiously polished, silvered 
and painted in proper places and otherwise ornamented. From 



vEt. 37.] DESCRIPTION OF THE ORRERY. 311 

the centre arises an axis, to support a gilded brass ball, in- 
tended to represent the sun. Round this ball move others, 
made of brass or ivory, to represent planets. They are to 
move in elliptical orbits, having the centre ball in one focus ; 
and their motions to be sometimes swifter, and sometimes 
slower, as nearly according to the true law of an equable 
description of areas as is possible, without too great a compli- 
cation of wheel work. The orbit of each planet is likewise 
to be properly inclined to those of the others, and their 
aphelia and nodes justly placed, and their velocities so accu- 
rately adjusted as not to differ sensibly from the tables of as- 
tronomy in some thousands of years. 

" For the greater beauty of the instrument, the balls rep- 
resenting the planets are to be of considerable bigness ; but 
so contrived that they may be taken off at pleasure and others 
much smaller and fitter for some purposes, put in their places. 

"When the machine is put in motion, by the turning of a 
winch, there are three indexes, which point out the hour of 
the day, of the month and the year, (according to the Julian 
account) answering to that situation of the heavenly bodies 
which it then represented ; and so continually for a period of 
five thousand years, either forward or backward. 

"In order to know the true situation of a planet, at any 
particular time, the same set of balls are to be put each on its 
respective axis, then the winch to be turned round till each 
index points to the given time, then a small telescope made 
for the purpose is to be applied to the central ball, and direct- 
ing it to the planet, its longitude and inclination will be seen 
on a large brass circle, silvered and properly graduated, rep- 
resenting the zodiac, and having a motion of one degree in 



312 RITTENHOUSE. [l769. 

seventy -two years, agreeably to the precision of the equinoxes. 
So, likewise, by applying the telescope to the ball represent- 
ing the earth, and directing it to any planet, then will both 
the longitude and latitude of that planet be pointed out, (by 
an index and graduated circle) as seen from the earth. 

" The two lesser faces, are four feet in height, and two feet 
three inches in breadth. One of them represents and exhibits 
all the appearances of Jupiter and his satellites, their eclipses, 
transits, and inclinations. Likewise all the appearances of 
Saturn, with his ring and satellites. And the other represents 
all the phenomena of the Moon, particularly the exact time, 
quantity and duration of her eclipses, and those of the Sun oc- 
casioned by her intei-jsosition, with a most curious contrivance 
for exhibiting the appearance of a solar eclipse, at any particu- 
lar place on the earth. Likewise the true place of the Moon 
in the signs, with her latitude and the place of her apogee, and 
nodes, and the Sun's declination, equation of time, &c. It 
must be understood that all these motions are to correspond 
exactly with the celestial motions, and not to differ some de- 
grees as in common orreries. 

"The whole may be adjusted to, and kept in motion by a 
strong pendulum clock, nevertheless at liberty to be turned by 
the winch, and adjusted to any time, past and future." 

This description of the orrery was drawn up by Ritten- 
house himself, but no mention is made of the exact means 
by which these results are continually produced at plea- 
sure, nor of the combinations of wheel mechanism pecu- 
liar to this one. It is not a little singular that the labors of 
Rittenhouse in this particular should have been almost entirely 
overlooked by subsequent writers on astronomical subjects, 



iEx. 38.] PURCHASED BY PRINCETON. 313 

although those of a later period, as Joseph Priestly and Jan- 
vier's, have met with due consideration. This may be due to 
the circumstance that no detailed account of its mechanism 
was ever given to the public either by the author himself or 
the learned society under whose auspices it was first intro- 
duced to public attention. 

It attracted at the time of its appearance much attention, 
and gave rise to a considerable competition by different col- 
leges for its ultimate possession. 

Whilst the College of Philadelphia was negotiating for its 
purchase, Princeton College, of New Jersey, sent a deputa- 
tion, at the head of which was the president of the institution. 
Dr. Witherspoon, to Norriton to examine it, on the 23d of 
April, 1770. This committee were so much pleased with the 
instrument that they purchased it at once, and thus Princeton 
bore off the palm from Philadelphia in obtaining possession of 
the first orrery made by Rittenhouse, and beyond doubt the 
most complete one in the world. 

Dr. Smith, the provost of the Philadelphia College, in ? 
letter to Barton, written immediately after the sale of the 
orrery to Princeton College, remarks: "I never met with 
greater mortification than to find Mr. Rittenhouse had, in my 
absence, made a sort of agreement to let his orrery go to the 
Jersey college. I had constantly told him that if the Assem- 
bly did not take it, I would take it for our college, and would 
have paid him the full sum, should I have begged the money. 
I thought I could depend, as much as on any thing under 
the sun, that after Mr. Rittenhouse knew my intentions about 
it, he would not have listened to any proposal for disposing of 
it without advising me, and giving our college the first opppr- 
40 



314 RITTENHOUSE. [1769. 

tunity to purchase. I think Mr. Rittenhouse was never so 
little himself as to suffer himself to be taken off his guard on 
this occasion. This province is willing to honor him as her 
own." 

Mr. Rittenhouse partook very sensibly of these unpleasant 
feelings, fearing lest he might be thought to act a part of cun- 
ning not in keeping with his character. He thus writes to 
Barton concerning it : "I would not on any account incur the 
imputation of cunning, nor are there probably many persons 
living who deserve it less ; yet I am greatly mistaken if this 
matter does not, in the end, turn to my advantage, and conse- 
quently to your satisfaction. At present the point is settled 
as follows : I am to begin another immediately and finish it 
expeditiously for the college at Philadelphia. This I am not 
sorry for, since the making of a second will be but amuse- 
ment compared with the first. And who knows but that the 
rest of the colonies may catch the contagion?" 

Yet even this did not appear to satisfy the citizens of Phila- 
delphia ; for Dr. Smith, writing to Barton soon after, says : 
" The governor says the orrery shall not go ; he would rather 
pay for it himself. He has ordered a meeting of the trustees 
on Tuesday next, and declares it as his opinion that we ought 
to have the first orrery, and not the second, even if the sec- 
ond should be best." 

It will be seen by this correspondence how distinguished a 
reputation our philosopher had already obtained at home, and 
how anxious they were to preserve the first works of his ge- 
nius as trophies for coming ages. One of the causes of this 
well-earned reputation we will now attempt to develope. 

The attention of the learned world had for some time been 



^T. 38.] TRANSIT OF VENUS. 315 

directed to a phenomerxa of rare occurrence, about to take 
place, and different governments had prepared observatories 
at different and distant parts of the earth, to note its visible 
appearances. This was the transit of Venus, which was to 
occur on the third of June, 1769. These transits may be 
thus briefly explained. Certain planets whose orbits are 
within the range of that of the earth's and are denominated 
inferior planets, at distant intervals pass a line, which begin- 
ning at the sun's centre, traverses their nodes, and penetrate 
the earth. When this juxtaposition occurs, they seem to pass 
over successive parts of the sun, and by their opacity to 
eclipse portions of its surface, exhibiting the appearances ob- 
served in ordinary eclipses. 

The transits of Mercury are more frequent, but those of 
Venus are of rare occurrence. The first transit of Mercury 
was observed November 6th, 1631, including which thirty 
transits have already taken place, and six more will occur 
within the present century. The first transit of Venus was 
observed on December 4th, 1639, the second, 5th of June, 
1761, and the third was now about to take place. No other 
has since occurred, nor is it expected before December 8th, 
1874, so that upwards of a century will have elapsed betwixt 
the last and the coming appearance of this phenomena. 

The advantages of observing these transits as pointed out 
by Halley, are in computing longitude, in ascertaining its ac- 
tual distance from the earth and sun, and in correcting the 
tables of the planet itself. 

The American Philosophical Society ajDpointed a committee 
of its members in August, 1768, among whom was Ritten- 
house, to observe and report on this transit. The committee 



316 RITTENHOUSE. [1769. 

were divided into three sections, one of which was to be sta- 
tioned at the light house near Cape Henlopen, on the Dela- 
ware bay, the second at an observatory erected for the occa- 
sion, in the State House gardens, at Philadelphia, and the 
third at Mr. Rittenhouse's residence, at Norriton, under his 
immediate superintendence. An appropriation for defraying 
the expenses incident to fitting up these observatories, was 
made by the society, and an additional sum voted by the le- 
gislative assembly. With these funds, and the great personal 
exertions of Dr. Smith, who was the chairman of the com- 
mittee, the three observatories were completed. That at Nor- 
riton is the only one whose arrangements we shall stop to 
consider. 

The edifice for this was erected near the dwelling of Rit- 
tenhouse. It was commenced in November, 1768, but from 
delays in procuring workmen, was not completed before the 
following April. Considerable difficulty presented itself in 
procuring the necessary instruments, but through Dr. Smith's 
exertions, an excellent Gregorian reflecting telescope, with 
Doland's Micrometer, the best in use, was sent from London 
for the purpose, by Hon. T. Penn, and afterwards presented 
in his name to the college. An astronomical quadrant of two 
and a half feet radius, made by Sisson, a Refractor of forty- 
two feet, its magnifying power about 140, an equal altitude 
instrument, its telescope three and a half feet focal length, 
with two horizontal hairs, and a vertical one in its focus, 
firmly supported on a stone pedestal, a transit telescope 
fixed in the meridian on an axis, with fine steel points, so 
that the hair in its focus could move in no other direction than 
along the meridian, and an excellent time piece, having for 



^T. 38.] PREPARATIONS FOR OBSERVATION. 317 

its pendulum rod, a flat steel bar, with a bob weighing about 
twelve pounds, and vibrating in a small arch, were also pro- 
cured. The last three were made by Rittenhouse himself. 

With these arrangements for observation, joined to a com- 
plete skill in mechanics, and an astronomical and mathemat- 
ical knowledge so extensive, that the use, management, and 
even construction of every necessary apparatus was perfectly 
familiar to him, he commenced a series of observations to test 
the accuracy of his instruments, and more particularly to de- 
termine the longitude of the observatory, and the correctness 
of his time. 

In his report to Dr. Smith, he says, " I had for some time 
expected the use of an equal altitude instrument from Phila- 
delphia, but finding I could not depend on having it, I fell to 
work, and made one of as simple a construction as I could, 
March 20th, this instrument was finished and put up out of 
doors, the observatory not being yet ready." 

" I had, for some weeks before this, with my thirty-six feet 
Refractor, observed eclipses of Jupiter's satellites in such a 
manner, that though my equal altitude instrument was not 
finished, and consequently I could not set my time piece to 
the true noon, I should nevertheless be able to tell the time 
of those eclipses afterwards, when the instrument should be 
ready. For this purpose, I observed almost every fair even- 
ing, the time by the clock when the bright star in Orion dis- 
appeared behind a fixed obstacle, by applying my eye to a 
small sight-hole, made through a piece of brass fastened to a 
strong post. 

" From this time to May 20th, the clock was altered sev- 
eral times ; once taken down, cleaned, removed back to the> 



318 RITTENHOUSE. [1769. 

observatory, and regulated anew. Care was however taken 
to observe equal altitudes of the sun on the days preceding any 
visible eclipse of the first satellite, when the weather would 
permit. 

" May 20th in the morning, the clock was set up for the 
last time, pretty near the mean time. It had no provision for 
preventing the irregularities arising from heat and cold, nor 
could I find leisure to apply any contrivance of this sort. 
This day I had likewise put wires instead of hairs, in the tel- 
escope of the equal altitude instrument, and the following are 
the observations taken both with it, and with the meridian or 
transit telescope." 

The observations which exhibit great care and accuracy are 
omitted, as they would be of interest only to the scientific 
reader, who can consult them at large, in the Transactions of 
the American Philosophical Society, as well as those of the 
Royal Society, at London, for the year 1769. 

In reporting these observations to the Society, Dr. Smith 
adds : " So far, I have given Mr. Rittenhouse's observations 
previous and subsequent to the transit, for ascertaining the 
going of his time piece, and fixing the latitude and longitude 
of the observatory, from February 15th to July 8th, by which 
it will appear what laudable diligence he hath used in these 
material articles." 

With these careful preparations for exact observations made 
by Rittenhouse to aid them, the committee, consisting of 
Smith, Lukens and Sellers, met at Norriton, on Thursday, 
June 1st, intending to remain with Rittenhouse until the 
transit should have occurred. On that day, and several pre- 
ceding it, the sky had been overcast with clouds, attended by 



^T. 38.] DOUBTS AND HOPES. 319 

heavy showers, and the prospect for witnessing a phenomena 
which could never be observed by them again, appeared 
gloomy enough. On the evening of the day of their arrival 
however, by one of those transitions so common at this season 
of the year, the clouds were suddenly dispelled and the sky 
became beautifully serene. 

The following day was spent in marking the foci of the tel- 
escopes, placing the reflector on a polar axis, giving supports 
to the ends of the refractors, taking diameters of the sun, 
and a variety of other minute preparations, prior to a concen- 
tration of the whole powers of their astronomical apparatus 
upon one phenomena of momentary duration, fraught with 
more important results than any other which could possibly 
occur to them again. 

The heavens were watched by them with an anxiety they had 
never felt before. The previous heavy rains had given to the 
atmosphere an uncommon clearness and purity, and to the sky 
a transparent and azure blue, of enchanting loveliness. The 
rays of the sun shone out with a force as intense as the sky 
was clear and beautiful, and all nature seemed clothed in an 
aspect too lovely to continue thus for any length of time. It 
was not without considerable anxiety that they saw the sun 
sink in the west ; nor did they retire to rest without those al- 
ternate emotions of hope and fear, which the coming of the 
remarkable event they were about to witness, heaven pro- 
pitious, but which the passage of one little cloud over the 
sun's disc at an unfortunate moment might blot out from their 
view, was calculated to inspire. 

We may readily enter into the feelings of delight with 
which they saw the sun arise on the following morning, 



320 RITTENHOUSE. [1769. 

without a cloud to mar its brightness, or intercept the sight 
they were about to witness. Mr. Rittenhouse had, by pre- 
vious calculation, made the external contact to be June 3d, 
2h. 11'; for the latitude 40° N. and longitude 5h. W. of 
Greenwich. For half an hour before the arrival of this time, 
one or the other of the committee was engaged in watching 
the sun's limb where the planet was expected. As the mo- 
ment approached, they arranged themselves before their in- 
struments, having previously adopted the following signals, 
prepared by Dr. Smith, so that the silence, so important to 
their success, might remain unbroken. 

"First. That each of us might the better exercise our own 
judgment, without being influenced, or thrown into any agi- 
tation by the others, it was agreed to transact every thing by 
signals, and that one should not know what another was doing. 
The situation of the telescopes, the two refractors being at 
some distance without the observatory, and the reflector 
within, favored this design. 

" Secondly. Two persons, Mr. Sellers, one of our committee, 
and Mr. Archibald M' Clean, both well accustomed to matters 
of this kind, were placed at one window of the observatory, 
to count the clock and the signal from Mr. Lukens. Two of 
Mr. Rittenhouse's family, whom he had often employed to 
count the clock for him in his observations, were placed at 
another window to take his signal. My telescop^ was placed 
close by the clock, and I was to count its beats, and set down 
my own time. These preliminaries being settled, we pre- 
pared at two o'clock to sit down to our respective telescopes, 
or (I should rather say) lie down to the refractors, on account 
of the Sun's great height. 



1 



.Et. 38.] ACCOUNT OF THE CONTACTS. 321 

" As there was a large concourse of the inhabitants of the 
country, and many from the city, we were apprehensive that 
our scheme for silence might be defeated by some of them 
speaking, when they should see any of the signals for the 
contacts ; and therefore we found it necessary to tell them 
that the success of our observation would depend on their 
keeping a profound silence till the contacts were over. And 
to do them justice, during the twelve minutes that ensued, 
there could not have been a more solemn pause of silence and 
expectation, if each individual had been waiting for the sen- 
tence that was to give him life or death. So regular and quiet 
was the whole, that far from hearing a whisper or word spoken, 
I did not even h%a.T the feet of the counters, who passed be- 
hind me from the windows to the clock, and was surprised 
when I turned from my telescope to the clock, to find them 
all there before me, counting up their seconds to an even 
number; as I imagined, from the deep silence, that my asso- 
ciates had yet seen nothing of Venus." 

The following is Mr. Rittenhouse's account of the contacts : 

"At 2h. 11' 39" per clock, the Rev. Mr. Barton of Lancas- 
ter, who assisted me at the telescope, on receiving my signal, 
as had been agreed, instantaneously communicated it to the 
counters at the window, by waving a handkerchief, who 
walking softly to the clock, counting seconds as they went 
along, noted down their times separately, agreeing to the same 
second. And three seconds sooner than this, to the best of 
my judgment, was the time when the least impression made 
by Venus on the Sun's limb, could be seen by my telescope. 

"When the planet had advanced about one-third of its di- 
ameter on the Sun, as I was steadily viewing its progress, my 
41 



322 RITTENHOUSE. [1769,. 

sight was suddenly attracted by a beam of light which broke 
through on that side of Venus yet off the sun. Its figure was 
that of a broad based pyramid, situated about forty or forty- 
five degrees on the limb of Venus, from a line passing through 
her centre and the Sun's, and to the left hand of that line, as 
seen through my telescope, which inverted. About the 
same time, the Sun's light began to spread round Venus on 
each side, from the points where their limbs intersected each 
other. 

" As Venus advanced, the point of the pyramid still grew 
lower, its circular base wider, until it met the light which 
crept round from the points of intersection of the two limbs, 
so that when half the planet appeared on the Svm, the other 
half yet off, the Sun was entirely surrounded by a semicir- 
cular light, best defined on the side next to the body of Venus, 
which continually grew brighter till the end of the internal 
contact. 

" Imagination cannot form any thing more beautifully 
serene and quiet than was the air during the whole time ; 
nor did I ever see the Sun's limb more perfectly defined or 
more free from any tremulous motion ; to which his great al- 
titude undoubtedly contributed much. 

"When the internal contact (as it is called) drew nigh, I 
foresaw that it would be very difficult to fix the time with 
any certainty, on account of the great breadth and brightness 
of the light which surrounded that part of Venus yet off" the 
Sun. After some consideration, I resolved to judge as well 
as T could, of the coincidence of the limbs, and accordingly 
gave the signal for the internal contact at 2h. 28' 45" by the 
clock, and immediately began to count seconds, which any 



iEx. 38.] REMOVES TO PHILADELPHIA. 323 

one who has been accustomed to it, may do for a minute or 
two, pretty near the truth. In this manner I counted no less 
than V 32" before the effect of the atmosphere of Venus on 
the Sun's limb wholly disappeared, leaving that part of the 
limb as well defined as the rest. From this, I concluded that 
I had given the signal for the internal contact too soon ; and 
the times given by the other observers at Norriton, confirm 
me in this opinion." 

Whatever opinion may have been entertained of Ritten- 
house's abilities prior to this period, it is evident that his ob- 
servations on the transit of Venus not only placed him far 
above his associates in the investigation, but established for 
him a reputation as a careful, exact astronomer, and profound 
mathematician, second to none other in the age in which he 
lived. " There is not another society in the world that can 
boast of such a member as Rittenhouse ;" writes a distin- 
guished European astronomer to Dr. Franklin — "theorist 
enough to encounter the i^roblems for determining the orbit of 
a comet, and also mechanic enough to make with his own 
hands an equal altitude instrument, a transit telescope and a 
time piece." 

On the 9th of November, 1769, he was engaged with his 
old associates in observing a transit of Mercury at Norriton 
observatory, an account of which was communicated to the 
Philosophical Society by Dr. Smith, on behalf of the com- 
mittee. 

He was likewise associated with these gentlemen in deter- 
mining the longitude of Norriton, in connexion with the sur- 
vey of Mason and Dixon's line. The last communication 
made by him to the Philosophical Society, from Norriton, is 



324 RITTENHOTJSE. [1770. 

on some observations on a comet that appeared in June and 
July, 1770. This paper is daited at Norriton, July 24th, 1770. 

In the autumn of 1770, he yielded to the urgent appeals 
made to him, 'and removed to Philadelphia, It had been the 
purpose of his friends, foremost among whom was Dr. Smith, 
to procure some governmental appointment, as a means of in- 
ducing him to take up his residence in Pliiladelphia. When 
the bill for establishing a loan office was before the assembly, 
in the winter of 1769-'70, Dr. Smith proposed to the speaker, 
Joseph Galloway, to insert the name of Rittenhouse as one of 
the three loan commissioners to be chosen, "telling him Mr. Rit- 
tenhouse ought to be encouraged to come to town, to take a lead 
in a manufacture, optical and mathematical, which never had 
been attempted in America, and drew thousands of pounds to 
England for instruments, often ill finished, and that it would 
redound to the honor of Philadelphia to take a lead in this, 
and of the assembly to encourage it. The speaker took the 
proposal well, and in short, so did every person applied to, 
and when the vote passed the day before yesterday, for the 
three trustees, the whole house rose for Rittenhouse's name."* 

The assembly ros'e, as was feared, without finally passing 
the bill, and the friends of Rittenhouse were disappointed in 
procuring for him the commissionership, but neither himself nor 
his friends could fail to be gratified at the high mark of com- 
mendation bestowed upon him by tlie unanimous vote of the 
legislature, " and shews," adds Dr. Smith, " that a good man 
is capable of sometimes commanding all parties." 

Dr. Smith's kind offices did not terminate here, for on the 
completion of his second orrery, March 15th, 1771, it was in- 

* Smith's letter to Barton, 27tli January, 1770. 



iEx. 39.] DEATH OF MRS. Ill T T E N HO U SE . 325 

troduced to the public in a course of lectures given by him, 
to defray the cost of its purchase. " I have been so busy," 
says Smith in a letter to Barton dated 23d of March, 1771, 
"these two months past, that I could not find a moment's 
leisure to write. A good deal of time was to be given to the 
public lectures, the orrery, and getting our dear friend Ritten- 
house brought into as advantageous a light as possible, on his 
first entrance into this town as an inhabitant, all which has 
succeeded to our utmost wishes ; and the notice taken of him 
by the province is equally to his honor and theirs. The loss 
of his wife has greatly disconcerted him ; but we try to keep 
up his spirits under it." 

How deeply he was affected by this incident mentioned in 
the concluding paragraf)h of this letter, may be seen by the 
following remark in a letter to Barton. "I suppose you have 
been informed that the assembly have made me a donation of 
three hundred pounds. This would have been very agreeable 
to me if my poor Eleanor had lived ; but now, neither money — 
nor reputation — has any charms, though I must think them 
valuable, because absolutely necessary in this unhappy life." 

He appears about this period to have contemplated a voyage 
(never accomplished) to Europe. In alluding to some domes- 
tic arrangements, made the subject of his thoughts by the 
death of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, lie 
writes to Barton : " What adds to my misfortune, is the hurry 
of business I am engaged in, and know not how to get rid of. 
My design at present is to keep the children with me until I 
can conveniently take a ramble to Europe." 

At the annual election of officers of the Philosophical So- 
ciety, held in January, 1771, Rittenhouse was named as one 



326 RITTENHOUSE. [1772. 

of the secretaries, having become eligible by his removal to 
Philadelphia. From the beginning of his connexion with 
this society, he was not only one of its most extensive con- 
tributors, but also one of its most devoted friends. The ad- 
vantages which it presented in its library, and the constant 
association with its members to further his scientific pursuits, 
proved one of the chief inducements that drew him from his 
beloved retirement, to the less congenial life of the city. 
During the three following years he was occupied mainly 
with his philosophic studies, and was one of the most con- 
stant attendants upon its meetings. During this interval he 
likewise found time and opportunity to repair the loss he had 
experienced in the death of his wife, by the selection of a 
new one, to whom he was married in December, 1772. The 
name of this lady was Miss Hannah Jacobs. She died in 
October, 1799. 

Rittenhouse, philosopher as he was, seemed entirely un- 
suited for a single life. With a chronic complaint for his con- 
stant and unremitting attendant, and deprived of the social 
intercourse to which he had heretofore been accustomed, the 
brief period of his widowhood proved to be the most unhappy 
of his life, and so great was his despondency that his friends 
began to entertain serious fear lest it might settle into a con- 
firmed melancholy. The change in his domestic relations, 
together with his return to the active emijloyments from 
which he had briefly retired, served to re-animate anew his 
flagging spirits, and restored him to his accustomed equanimity. 

From this time he may be looked upon as enjoying the ad- 
vantages already acquired from his previously established dis- 
tinguished reputation, and his future official employments 



JEt. 41.] PU BLIC EMPLOYMENTS. 327 

seemed but a natural consequence of his admitted preeminent 
qualifications J united to great private worth and probity of 
character. 

The first of these public employments was conferred upon 
him by an act of the legislature, of the 26th of February, 1773, 
by which he was appointed the first of three commissioners 
named in the act, to make the Schuylkill navigable. His 
connexion with this commission continued eleven years. 

On the 24th of October, 1774, he was chosen by Governor 
Penn, a commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania, to run a 
boundary line between that colony and New York. The 
disturbances which arose about this period, betwixt the colo- 
nies and the mother country, and which resulted in effect- 
ing so material a change in their relations, prevented him 
from doing any thing more than to determine the forty-third 
degree of north latitude, or north-eastern boundary of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Although a life of retirement, or one engaged in philo- 
sophic investigations, was that most congenial to his feel- 
ings, yet on the election of Franklin to the newly appointed 
Congress, he could not resist the appeal made to him by his 
friends to fill the position in the State Assembly, made va- 
cant by that eminent personage. In 1776, immediately after 
the declaration of independence, he was appointed one 
of twenty-four justices for the State, and in that capacity 
become a member of the important council of safety, a po- 
sition bestowed only on the most trustworthy and influential 
citizens. 

In 1777 he received from the first legislature assembled 
under the new order of things, the appointment of State 



328 RITTENHOUSE. [1780. 

Treasurer, by a unanimous vote, a flattering, and at the same 
time, fit reward for that " stern integrity and uniform ad- 
herence to those principles which gave rise to the American 
revolution" that had hitherto characterised him. 

In 1779, he was appointed one of the commissioners to de- 
termine the boundary line then in dispute, between Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia; in 1780, a trustee of the loan office of the 
State ; in 1784, a commissioner for determining the western 
boundary of the State ; in 1785, a commissioner under the 
authority of Congress to determine the line between Massa- 
chusetts and New York; and in 1792, the first director of the 
United States mint. This list includes only those official ap- 
pointments, requiring his undivided attention for the time. 
In addition to these, he was honored by several others, Avhich 
neither furnished much pecuniary compensation, nor required 
much attention, and are therefore not mentioned here. 

Whilst thus engaged in multifarious labors, requiring no in- 
considerable share of attention, he allowed no opportunity 
to pass disregarded, that could be profitably emi)loyed in 
advancing the cause of astronomical science. The results of 
these labors were communicated from time to time to the Phil- 
osophical Society, where they may be consulted by those who 
desire to prosecute the subject more minutely than our pres- 
ent purpose will permit us to do. In 1772 he received the 
honorary degree of A. M,, from Princeton College ; in 1782, 
he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences 
at Boston; in 1784, the honorary degree of Master of Arts 
was conferred on him by William and Mary College, in "Vir- 
ginia ; in 1789, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred 
upon him by the College of New Jersey ; on the first of January, 



iEx. 49.1 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 329 



1790, he was chosen one of the Vice Presidents of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, and on the 17th of the following 
April, on the decease of Dr. Franklin, he was elected to the 
Presidency of that institution, which position he continued to 
fill until his death. 

During this period of his life, when offices and honors 
flowed in upon him with such prodigal bounty, he occupied a 
modest, yet respectable dwelling on the corner of Arch and 
Seventh streets, in Philadelphia. His family circle consisted 
of his wife and two interesting daughters, by his former mar- 
riage, now grown into womanhood, with whom he was less a 
father than a companion, entering with a zest into the lighter 
amusements that attract the fancy of youth, that could hardly 
be anticipated from a grave philosopher. This alternative 
from grave to gay, was not confined to his intercourse with 
the younger members of his family, but extended itself to his 
reading, so that with a mind possessed of a capacity to fathom 
the most abstruse propositions of exact science, he derived an 
almost childish pleasure from the perusal of works of imagin- 
ation and romance. 

His reputation as a man of science, drew around him a 
large number of distinguished visitors, whom he always 
charmed by the simplicity of his manners, and the profound- 
ness of his reasoning. He was a man of his day, as well as 
a philosopher, and so far from confining his mind to abstruse 
studies, was deeply read in most of the departments of polite 
learning. 

Shortly after his appointment to the presidency of the Philo- 
sophical Society, his health, always delicate, became so much 

enfeebled that he was for the most part, confined to his own 
42 



330 RITTENHOUSE. 



house, occasionally taking a little out door recreation on a 
pleasant day, but usually limiting himself to the little flower 
garden adjoining his residence, tastefully adorned and kept in 
oi'der by Mrs. Rittenhouse. He however, continued to pre- 
side at the meetings of the society, and discharged its duties 
with such a simplicity of character, and urbanity of disposi- 
tion, as warmly to attach to himself every member of the 
institution. 

He was seized, on the 22d of June, 1796, with an attack of 
cholera morbus, attended with a violent pain and sense of 
oppression in the region of the stomach, and more fever than 
usually attends this affection. His medical attendant, Dr. 
Barton, was sent for to visit him, and on his arrival, found 
him walking in his flower garden. The symptoms did not 
appear to be unusually severe, and he was led to believe that 
the attack would readily yield to medicine. Contrary to his 
expectations, he found him on the following day so much 
worse as to induce him to request additional medical aid, 
which was assented to, and Dr. Kuhn was called in consulta- 
tion, although the patient himself had little hopes of relief 
from any source. The urgency of his febrile symptoms 
seemed to demand the abstraction of blood. This operation 
afforded but temporary relief, and he died on Sunday, the 
26th of June, with scarce a struggle, aged sixty-four years. 

He was buried, according to his particular request, without 
ostentation, beneath the pavement of the small observatory 
erected by him in his garden some years before, with a simple 
marble slab placed over him, bearing his name, age and time 
of decease. In person he was tall, slender, and somewhat 
delicately made. His forehead was high and expansive, his 



SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 331 

nose large and slightly aquiline, his mouth well formed, 
but prominent, his chin broad and strong, and his eyes 
handsome and always lit up with an expression of mingled 
intelligence and benevolence. In the language of Thomas 
Jefferson, " genius, science, purity of morals, simplicity of 
manners, marked him as one of nature's best samples of the 
perfection she can cover under the human form." 

If we were to estimate the value of Rittenhouse's labors by 
the amount of published matter he left behind, we should 
certainly not award him a very exalted place among the ranks 
of learned men, although the aggregate of his published con- 
tributions to science, principally made to the American Philo- 
sophical Society, is by no means small or trifling ; but if we 
are to judge him by the substantial aids he has contributed to 
the advancement of astronomical knowledge, few men of his 
age are entitled to a more distinguished consideration than 
himself. He was not enabled, like Herschel, with superior 
instruments, to read" the problem and reveal the phenomena of 
the milky way, which his genius had discovered, but which 
his defective telescope failed to penetrate ; nor like his imme- 
diate predecessor in the i)residential chair of the Philosophi- 
cal Societj-, to call down the thunder-bolt from the clouds, 
and disarm it of its terrors, but with extraordinary skill and 
perseverance, he observed and recorded astronomical phe- 
nomena with, an exactitude which alone gives value to the 
science. He was not the first observer of the transit of 
Venus, but what philosopher has done more to make this 
discovery valuable to the human race ? 



ELI WHITNiEY. 



Whitney furnishes an illustration of the truth, that a man 
may possess great genius, be an inventor of the highest order, 
and yet never write a book. Indeed his early occupations 
were far from favorable to literary pursuits, and even when at 
a later period he entered Yale College, as a student, we are 
unable to jDerceive that he evinced any great anxiety to excel 
as a literary man. On the contrary, his heart seems to have 
been centered in his favorite pursuit of mechanics, and his 
studies were prosecuted with avidity only when they tended 
to this point. He is said to have been an excellent mathe- 
matician, but was not remarkable for his attainments, as a 
classical scholar. 

His father, who resided at Westborough, in Massachusetts, 
at which place Eli Whitney was born on the 8th Decem- 
ber, 1765, was a small farmer, and managed by dint of industry 
to rear an increasing family, frugally yet respectably, for the 
most part to pursue the same quiet occupation with himself. 
Whitney's early years were spent in assisting his father and 
brothers in their agricultural pursuits ; but even at this early 
period he evinced a great fondness for mechanics,, and 
exhibited unmistakeable evidences of a high order of in- 
ventive genius. As might naturally be supposed, these first 
attempts were expended in childish inventions. Some amu- 



EARLY EMPLOYMENTS. 333 



sing incidents are related of this portion of his life : among 
others it is said that his father having had occasion to absent 
himself from home for a few days, enquired on his return, as 
was his custom, into the occupation of his sons during his ab- 
sence. He received a good account of all of them, except 
Eli, who, the housekeeper Avas reluctantly obliged to confess 
had been engaged in making a fiddle. " Alas," said the father 
with a sigh and an ominous shake of the head, "I fear that 
Eli will have to take out his portion in fiddles." Nor can we 
marvel much at the parent's forebodings, when we remember 
how frequent a shift this is with idle and worthless boys. ) 

When but twelve or fourteen years of age, his reputation as 
a skilful mechanic had become so general, that the surrounding 
country people were in the habit of bringing to him jobs to 
execute, which he performed with such skill and neatness as 
always to satisfy, and not unfrequently to astonish his em- 
ployers. 

The revolutionary war by shutting out imports, raised the 
price of nails, which were much in demand, and exclusively 
wrought by hand. Whitney, when but sixteen, persuaded 
his father to furnish him with the necessary implements 
to engage in their manufacture. This occupation engaged 
him for upwards of two years, until the termination of 
the war, by bringing foreign imports in competition, greatly 
reduced the profits of his labor, and induced him to relinquish 
the business. 

About this period he determined to acquire a collegiate edu- 
cation. By dint of much perseverance and labor, both as a 
mechanic and in conducting a small school, he succeeded in 
procuring the means necessary to defray his expenses, as 



334 WHITNEY. [1792. 

well as the education requisite to enable him to enter the Fresh- 
men class at Yale College, in the sj^ring of 1789, when about 
twenty-four years of age. It is needless to say that young 
Whitney, who was opposed in his scheme of college educa- 
tion by his family, and was obliged to procure, by his own 
exertions, the means of sustaining himself while engaged 
in its prosecution, was a diligent and laborious pupil. Here, 
as elsewhere, his favorite propensity manifested itself. The 
classics and polite literature were studied by him from ne- 
cessity, but mathematics, and especially those branches im- 
mediately relating to mechanics, from choice. In the former 
he was never remarkable, in the latter always a proficient. 
With the chaste diction, and exquisite poetical imagery of the 
ancient writers, he had little sympathy. The sweet toned 
sentences of Theocritus, the pleasing harmony of Virgil, or 
the graceful measure of Horace, failed to inspire his mind 
with their lofty and soul-stirring aspirations ; the abstruse theo- 
ries of Euclid, Huygens, Newton and Euler, on the contrary, 
were to him sources of never ceasing enjoyment. 

At college he did not abandon his craft in practical mechan- 
ism. One of the teachers mentioning on one occasion, his regret 
at being unable to exhibit to the class a very interesting experi- 
ment, on account of the condition of the philosophical appa- 
ratus, which no mechanic in the village was able to rectify, 
young Whitney volunteered the task, and soon placed the ap- 
paratus in complete order, very much to the gratification of 
his teachers, who warmly commended him for it. 

He graduated in 1792, and in the autumn of the same year 
entered into an engagement with a gentleman who resided in 
the State of Georgia, to become a private tutor to his children. 



iEx. 28.] INVENTS THE COTTON GIN. 335 

He shortly after set out for that State, in order to comply with 
his engagement. Unfortunately he found the position he had 
left his home to fill, occupied by another, and was thus left 
without occupation or means, and almost friendless. It had 
been his good fortune, however to accompany a southern lady 
who, with her family, was returning from a northern tour, 
from New York to Savannah. This lady, who was the widow 
of General Greene, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, 
took a deep interest in the welfare of Whitney, iznd no sooner 
heard of his disappointment, than she kindly proposed to hi'^^ 
to make her house his home, and immediately to commence 
the study of the law, according to his original intention. 
Whitney accepted this offer, and took up his residence with 
her accordingly. 

An incident occurred here which completely changed all 
his views in relation to himself, for life, and called out that 
invention which will in all tiire rank his name among the 
greatest benefactors of his kind, and place him in the foremost 
rank of inventive geniuses. It was this : a party of gentle- 
men from the northern part of the State, who were on a visit 
to Mrs. Greene, were deprecating the almost perfect impracti- 
cability of so separating the seed from the upland cotton as 
to make its cultivation an object of importance. Mrs. Greene, 
who had on more occasions than one, witnessed Whitney's 
wonderful mechanical genius, advised her guests to appeal to 
him, assuring them at the same time, that he was able to ac- 
complish whatever mechanical task he set himself about. 
The guests and the future inventor of the cotton-gin, were 
accordingly made acquainted with each other, and he was 
urged by them as well as by his kind friend and patroness, 



336 WHITNEY, 



[1793. 



to undertake the task. He modestly disclaimed any great 
knowledge of mechanics, but nevertheless agreed to make the 
attempt. 

His first object was to procure a sample of the upland cot- 
ton, containing the seed, which as yet he had never seen. 
For this purpose he made a visit to Savannah, and having 
succeeded in procuring the cotton in this condition, returned 
to commence his experiments upon it. His intentions were 
confined to his patroness, Mrs. Greene, and Mr. Miller, a 
i\ew England gentleman, who was then a tutor in Mrs. 
Greene's family, and afterwards became her husband. This 
gentleman not only warmly entered into his views, but on the 
completion of his model, became his partner in business, 
and furnished him with the capital necessary to carry on his 
operations. A separate room was assigned to him as his 
workshop, into which no persons were admitted except his 
two confidants, Mrs. Greene, (^who appears to have kept his 
sec7'et,) and Mr. Miller. 

He thus speaks of his operations at this time, in a letter 
addressed to Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, dated the 
21st of November, 1793: "Within about ten days after my 
first conception of the plan, I made a small, though imperfect, 
model. Experiments with this encouraged me to make one 
en a larger scale ; but the extreme difficulty of procuring 
workmen and proper materials in Georgia, prevented my 
completing the large one until some time in April last." The 
model machine, on a scale sufficiently large to test its practi- 
cability, was made entirely Avith his own hands, and with the 
rudest instruments. He was even obliged to draw out the 



^T. 29.] THE COTTON CULTURE. 337 

wire which, entered into its composition, — none being sold at 
that early day in Savannah. 

In order to understand the value of Whitney's invention, 
it will be necessary to give the reader a cursory view of the 
condition of the cotton growing interest at the time of its ap- 
pearance. The cotton plant, (Gossypium,) is indigenous to 
many warm countries, and has been cultivated and spun 
and wove into clothing, in India and the islands of the Indian 
ocean, from periods of the remotest antiquity. Pliny speaks 
of the cotton used by the Egyptians in his day, and Columbus 
relates that the natives of the American continent possessed 
cotton clothes on his first discovery of the Western world. 
The most extensive manufacturers of cotton, however, during 
the middle ages, were the Spaniards ; and at that period, 
when Spain ranked foremost in civilization and refinement, 
the delightful plains of Seville and Granada were no less 
celebrated for their picturesque beauty and high state of cul- 
tivation, than for the excellence of their cotton fabrics. Eng- 
land, at present the great manufacturing nation of the world, 
did not embark in this business before the middle of the sev- 
enteenth century. Its progress was exceedingly slow before 
the patent of Arkwright for spinning was obtained in 1769, 
and even with this additional aid its advance was far from 
rapid, until the discovery of Whitney, by rendering its cul- 
ture an object of importance to the American States, at once 
inspired new life into this branch of English industry. 

An idea of the estimate in which the cultivation of cotton, 
was held at the termination of the last century, by our gov- 
ernment, may be formed from the circumstance that Mr. Jay, 
in nego'fiating a commercial treaty with the English govern- 
43 



338 WHITNEY 



ment, permitted an article to be introduced into the treaty, 
in which the export was prohibited in American vessels, from 
the United States, of such articles as had formerly been sup- 
plied by the West Indies. Cotton was included among these 
articles ; its export at that period not being considered of im- 
portance enough to attract the particular attention of our dis- 
tinguished minister. 

There was at that period, as now, two distinct species of 
cotton grown in the United States, known by the appellations 
of the long and short stapled cotton. The best specimens of the 
former were called sea-island cotton, and were cultivated on 
the sandy islands which dot the shores of the lower Carolina 
and Georgia. It is supposed that the spray of the sea exer- 
cises a peculiar influence upon it, rendering its filaments 
longer and more silky, for wiien the plants are transplanted 
beyond the influence of the salt water, these qualities dete- 
riorate. The upland cotton, or that grown in the interior, is 
known by the name of short staple or bowed cotton. This lat- 
ter appellation was given to it on account of the process for- 
merly made use of to separate the seeds from the filaments. 
This was by striking masses of the cotton pods violently with 
bows, to which strings were attached, for the purpose of loos- 
ening them before attempting to separate the seeds by hand. 
This cotton also goes by the name of green seed cotton, which 
adheres with much more tenacity to the filaments of cotton 
than the black seeds, which characterize the sea-island spe- 
cies. The soil adapted to the growth of the sea-island cotton, 
is necessarily limited, while almost every acre of land in the 
Southern tier of the United States, is fitted for the culture of 
the short stapled cotton. It was for the purpose of separating 



descriptkIn'of the gin. 339 

the seed from this latter, that the gin of Whitney was in- 
vented, and on its success depended the applicability of the 
entire range of Southern States to the culture of this article. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that this invention should 
have been hailed with the greatest raptures of delight, and 
that those who witnessed its capacity to perform in a single 
day the labors of many months, should have indulged in the 
most brilliant imaginings as to the future prospects of the cot- 
ton-planting interest of the United States ; nor could it be 
otherwise than that its young inventor should have felt almost 
within his grasp that golden harvest which all were assured 
would flow in upon him through the medium of his riuspicious 
and well-timed invention. Who then could Lave imag-ined 
that this brilliant picture was soon to be succeeded by one 
blackened w^ith the clouds of misfortune and disappointment; — 
but we anticipate. 

Whitney's machine consists of a cylinder whose surface is 
covered with iron teeth about three-fourths of an inch apart, 
presenting a serrated appearance. During the revolutions of 
the cylinder, these teeth seize upon the cotton avooI, and 
draw it through the openings in a number of iron straps pla- 
ced in contact with them, from the hopper into which the cot- 
ton is placed. These openings are made too narrow to permit 
the seeds to pass through, and they are brushed from tlie 
plates into a receiver below. The revolving cylinder, with 
the cotton attached, meets with a second cylinder, moving in 
an opposite direction, supplied with brushes, which removes 
the cotton from the teeth of the first cylinder. The teeth of 
the first gins were made of wire. The execution of this ma- 
chine is as effective as its construction is simple. It may be 



340 WHITNEY. 



worked by men, oxen or water. A gin worked by oxen will 
clean from six to nine hundred pounds of cotton in a day. 
Before this invention it required the labor of a hand a day 
to separate the seed from fifty pounds of cotton. 

Mr. Whitney, in a correspondence between Fulton and 
himself, with great justice remarks : " My invention was new 
and distinct from every other — it stood alone. It was not in- 
terwoven with any thing known before ; and it can seldom 
happen that an invention or an improvement is so strongly 
marked, and can be so clearly and specially identified." 

It had been deemed prudent not to exhibit the machine to the 
public until Mr. Whitney had secured his right to it by patent ; 
but before he could complete his model, his workshop was 
broken open and the machine stolen. In this manner it be- 
came public before it was patented, and a horde of imitators 
immediately set to work to manufacture new ones upon his 
principle, but varying in some slight degree in order to avoid 
prosecutions under a patent. Considerable delay occurred in 
obtaining the patent, for although he presented his petition to 
the government on the 20th of June, 1793, it was not until 
nearly the close of that year that letters were issued confirm- 
ing his right. In the meantime, a number of persons engaged 
in manufacturing the gins, and boldly claimed a title to the 
invention. By an arrangement entered into between Mr. 
Miller (who had become his partner,) and himself, he re- 
paired to New England immediately after filing his petition 
for a patent, and commenced the manufacture of gins. Un- 
fortunately they did not confine their views to the man- 
ufacture and sale of the gins themselves, but aimed to 
engross the entire business of cleaning the cotton. The 



MISFORTUNES. 341 



cotton planters the following year planted greatly increased 
crops of cotton, on the faith that they would be made market- 
able by the gin. The profits to be derived from the gin, one- 
third of the entire cotton crop, which was then selling at 
twenty-five cents per pound, seemed to open to them a road 
to magnificent and speedy wealth ; but a series of misfortunes 
occurred which closed up their immediate avenue to pros- 
perity, and involved their concerns in a long train of per- 
plexities and embarrassments. 

In the spring of 1794, Whitney visited Georgia, for the 
purpose of efl^ecting arrangements to clean the cotton crop 
from seeds with such machines as he had previously made. 
He returned shortly after to New Haven, Connecticut, and 
with limited means set about preparing gins, but so greatly 
had the crop increased, that he found himself unable to meet 
the demand. The planters were therefore, glad to resort to 
other machines, and in a short time they met with a formida- 
ble competition in several others based upon Whitney's origi- 
nal principle. The most pressing embarrassment under which 
they labored, was a want of money ; for although Mr. Miller 
had advanced some means, they seem, from their correspon- 
dence, to have been obliged to resort to all manner of expe- 
dients to supply the expenditures incident on the manufacture 
of the gins, frequently borrowing it at the most ruinous rates 
of interest. To add to his misfortunes, while on a visit at 
New York, he received information that his shop, together 
with all its contents, including a number of newly manufac- 
tured machines, and all his books and papers, had been con- 
sumed by fire, by which he was reduced to a state of com- 
plete insolvency. 



342 WHITNEY. [1794. 

As if to crush every remaining hope, a prejudice was ex- 
cited in the minds of the manufacturers in England against 
the cotton cleaned by the gin. It was admitted to be freer 
from seeds than that picked by hands, but it was said to ren- 
der the cotton fibre brittle, and thus weaken the texture of 
the fabric manufactured from it. The manufacturers refused 
to purchase it, and Mr. Miller writes to Mr. Whitney that 
" Every one is afraid of the cotton. Not a purchaser in Savan- 
nah will pay a full price for it. Even the merchants with 
whom I have made a contract for purchasing, begin to part 
with their money reluctantly." 

Not only policy, but the very existence of their enterprise, 
dictated to Whitney to repair immediately to England for the 
purpose of disabusing the minds of the manufacturers on this 
prejudice against ginned cotton ; yet so straitened were their 
finances at this period, that neither Whitney nor his partner 
appear to have retained sufficient credit to borrow the sum of 
money necessary to defray the expenses of the journey. His 
anxiety to visit England was so great, that he was five or six 
times on the point of departure during the year 1796, but was 
as frequently deterred by disappointments in obtaining the 
requisite means, and was finally obliged to abandon the jour- 
ney altogether. As the hopes of accomplishing this under- 
taking diminished, his partner wrote to him from Georgia: 
"In the event of this failure, I can only take to myself the 
one half the blame which may attach itself to our misplaced 
confidence in the public opinion. I confess myself to have 
been entirely deceived in supposing that an egregious error, 
and a general deception, with regard to the quality of our cot- 
ton, could not long continue to influence the whole of the 



^T. 30.] UNFOUNDED PREJUDICE. 343 

manufacturing, the mercantile, and the planting interests, 
against us. But the reverse of this fact, allowing the staple 
of our cotton to be uninjured, has, to our sorrow, proved true, 
and I have long apprehended that our ruin would be the in- 
evitable consqeuence."* 

The letter from which this extract is made, bears date in 
the spring of 1797, at which period they appear to have had 
no less than twenty-eight gins, calculated for horse and water 
power, lying idle for want of employment, in the State of 
Georgia. The only hope of restoring the value of this prop- 
erty, upon which had been expended many thousand dollars 
more than either Whitney or his partner were worth, was in 
reviving the lost confidence in the cotton ginned by them. 
So long as the article continued unmarketable the planters 
hesitated to make use of the machine, and the merchants to 
purchase it. The hope indulged in Mr. Miller's letter, that 
this error would not long influence the whole of the manufac- 
turing interest against them, at last began to be realized. A 
reaction as gratifying as it was sudden, now set decidedly in 
favor of the cotton cleaned by the gin, and the merchants, 
who had but a short time previous looked with suspicion upon 
the article, eagerly sought it out as most desirable for the 
manufacturers' purposes. Their gins were again restored to, 
partial employment, and fortune, which had so long withheld 
its favors, seemed at last about to dawn upon their hopes in 
cloudless brilliancy. 

But here too, as at every previous step of their progress, 
they were doomed to encounter bitter disappointments. The 
difficulties in procuring the gins, encouraged a large number 
*Sillimau's Journal. 



344 WHITNEY. [1797. 

of unprincipled persons to attempt a violation of their patent, 
on the most flimsy pretences, and they were compelled to insti- 
tute a series of harassing and interminable lawsuits against the 
infringers of the patent, to protect themselves. The first of. 
these trials, to the surprise not only of the plaintiff, but the 
defendant, was decided against Whitney's patent. The pop- 
ular opinion seemed to be with them, and the judge charged 
the jury to bring in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, 
yet after an hour's consultation they rendered a verdict 
against the instructions of the court, on the ground that the 
violation of the law consisted in the several items of "making, 
devising, and using, or selling," while their charge consisted 
in "using:" alone. The failure of this suit increased the en- 
couragement to disregard the patent, and in a short time the 
whole cotton-growing portions of Georgia and South Carolina, 
became flooded with surreptitious gins to such an extent as 
not only to prevent the sale of the original gin, but almost to 
preclude its use. 

The next step taken by Whitney was, to appeal to the le- 
gislature of South Carolina to purchase his patent for the 
State, to which measure he had been urged by a number of 
influential citizens, for one hundred thousand dollars. The 
result of this appeal may be learned from a letter addressed 
by him to a friend on the subject, immediately after the ad- 
journment of the session of the legislature which acted on the 
subject : 

" I have been at this place a little more than two weeks, 
attending the legislature. They closed their session at ten 
o'clock last evening. A few hours previous to their adjourn- 
ment, they voted to purchase, for the State of South Carolina, 



iEx. 33.] TAX ON THE COTTON GIN. 345 

my patent right to the machine for cleaning cotton, at fifty 
thousand dollars, of which sum, twenty thousand is to be paid 
in hand, and the remainder in three annual payments, of ten 
thousand dollars each." 

The States of North Carolina and Tennessee, each of which 
had now directed their attention to the culture of cotton, 
seemed to be willing to award him a meed of justice, and af- 
ter numerous public meetings in both of these States, at one 
of which the late president, Andrew Jackson, presided, the 
subject was formally brought before both legislatures. The 
legislature of North Carolina laid a tax of two shillings and 
six pence on every saw used in ginning cotton, for five years, 
to be collected by the State and to be paid to Whitney. The 
tax levied by the State of Tennessee was thirty-seven and a 
half cents on every saw used in the State, to be continued for 
four years, and collected as in the State of North Carolina. 

Thus after so many years of toil and disappointment, in 
which thousands of individuals had become enriched through 
the medium of his invention, the projector seemed on the eve 
of realizing some substantial compensation for his labors. 
But here too, the sparkling cup of prosperity was presented 
to his parched lips only to be snatched away ere he could 
quaff its vivifying draught. The State of South Carolina, by 
a subsequent law, not only suspended the payment of the 
sums yet due under its former law, but directed that a suit 
should be instituted against Whitney and his partner, for the 
recovery of the money already paid to them. The grounds 
of this second law, were, first, that it was a matter of doubt 
whether the gin of Whitney was an original invention, and 
second, his failure to comply with the law by furnishing within 
44 



346 WHITNEY. [1807. 

a specified time two model machines to the State. This second 
law was subsequently repealed, and full justice awarded to 
him by the State, but the blow which this act of the legisla- 
ture inflicted upon him was severely felt. The States of 
North Carolina and Tennessee, on witnessing the action of 
South Carolina, wavered in their course, and failed to collect 
with regularity the tax imposed by their legislatures. In ad- 
dition to this, the suits, of which some hundred were insti- 
tuted, were seriously affected, and required greater exertions 
and a larger amount of proof to sustain them. 

We do not intend to follow Mr. Whitney through these 
numerous law suits, but will content ourselves with giving 
the opinion of Judge Johnson, which sets forth clearly and 
and concisely the facts of the case in which it was given, 
and wiU with equal force apply to all the others. The case 
in which this opinion was delivered, was that of Whitney vs. 
Fort, tried in Savannah, in December, 1807, asking for an 
injunction. 

" The complainants, in this case, are proprietors of the ma- 
chine called the saw gin. The use of which is to detach the 
short staple cotton from its seed. 

"The defendant, in violation of their patent right, has con- 
structed, and continues to use this machine ; and the object 
of this suit is to obtain a perpetual injunction to prevent a 
continuance of this infraction of complainant's right. 

" Defendant admits most of the facts in the bill set forth, 
but contends that the complainants are not entitled to the bene- 
fits of the act of Congress on this subject, because — 

1st. The invention is not original. 

2d. Is not useful. 



Mt. 43.] OPINION OF JUDGE JOHNSON. 347 

3d. That the machine which he uses is materially different 
from their invention, in the application of an improvement, 
the invention of another person. 

" The court will proceed to make a few remarks upon the 
several points as they have been presented to their view : 
whether the defendant was now at liberty to set up this de- 
fence whilst the patent right of complainants remains unre- 
pealed, has not been made a question, and they will therefore 
not consider it. 

" To support the originality of the invention, the complain- 
ants have produced a variety of depositions of witnesses, ex- 
amined under commission, whose examination expressly proves 
the origin, progress and completion of the machine by Whit- 
ney, one of the co-partners. Persons who were made privy 
to its first discovery, testify to the several experiments which 
he made in their presence before he ventured to expose his 
invention to the scrutiny of the public eye. But it is not ne- 
cessary to resort to such testimony to maintain this point. 
The jealous}'^ of the artist to maintain that reputation which 
his ingenuity has justly acquired, has urged him to unneces- 
sary pains on this subject. There are circumstances in the 
knowledge of all mankind which prove the originality of this 
invention more satisfactorily to the mind, than the direct tes- 
timony of a host of witnesses. The cotton plant furnished 
clothing to mankind before the age of Herodotus. The green 
seed is a species much more productive than the black, and 
by nature adapted to a much greater variety of climate. But 
by reason of the strong adherence of the fibre to the seed, 
without the aid of some more powerful machine for separating 
it, than any formerly known among us, the cultivation of it 



348 WHITNEY. 



would never have been made an object. The machine of 
which Mr. Whitney claims the invention, so facilitates the 
preparation of this species for use, that the cultivation of it 
has suddenly become an object ot infinitely greater national 
importance than that of the other species ever can be. Is it 
then to be imagined that if this machine had been before dis- 
covered, the use of it would ever have been lost, or could 
have been confined to any tract or country left unexplored by 
commercial enterprise ? but it is unnecessary to remark fur- 
ther upon this subject. A number of years have elapsed 
since Mr. Whitney took out his patent, and no one has pro- 
duced or pretended to prove the existence of a machine of 
similar construction or use. 

" 2d. With regard to the utility of this discovery, the court 
would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. 
Is there a man who hears us, who has not experienced its 
utility ? the whole interior of the Southern States was lan- 
guishing, and its inhabitants emigrating for want of some ob- 
ject to engage their attention, and employ their industry, when 
the invention of this machine at once opened views to them 
which set the whole country in active motion. From child- 
hood to age it has presented to us a lucrative employment. 
Individuals who were depressed with poverty and sunk in 
idleness, have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability. 
Our debts have been paid off. Our capitals have increased, 
and our lands trebled themselves in value. We cannot ex- 
press the weight of the obligation which the country owes to 
this invention. The extent of it cannot now be seen. Some 
faint presentiment may be formed from the reflection that cot- 
ton is rapidly supplanting wool, flax, silk, and even furs, in 



INJUNCTION GRANTED. 349 



manufactures, and may one day profitably supply the use of 
specie in our East India trade. Our sister States, also, parti- 
cipate in the benefits of this invention ; for, besides affording 
the raw material for their manufacturers, the bulkness and 
quantity of the article afford a valuable employment for their 
shipping. 

" 3d. The third and last ground taken by defendant, appears 
to be that on which he mostly relies. In the specification, 
the teeth made use of are of strong wire inserted into the 
cylinder. A Mr. Holmes has cut teeth in plates of iron, and 
passed them over the cylinder. This is certainly a merito- 
rious improvement in the mechanical process of constructing 
this machine. But at last what does it amount to, except a 
more convenient mode of making the same thing. Every 
characteristic of Mr. Whitney's machine is preserved. The 
cylinder, the iron tooth, the rotary motion of the tooth, the 
breast work and brush, and all the merit that this discovery 
can assume, is that of a more expeditious mode of attaching 
the tooth to the cylinder. After being attached, in operation 
and effect they are entirely the same. Mr. Whitney may not 
be at liberty to use Mr. Holmes' iron plate. But certainly 
Mr. Holmes' improvement does not destroy Mr. Whitney's 
patent right. Let the decree for a perpetual injunction be 
entered." 

Having thus given a history of the cotton gin, and the dif- 
ficulties which beset the pathway of its inventor, during the 
time he was occupied in attempting to bring it into use, we 
will now proceed to examine some of the statistics of the cotton 
trade in order to ascertain the real value which this machine 
bears to this most important branch of American industry. 



350 WHITNEY. 



THE COTTON CROP GROWN IN 
The year. In the world. In the U. States. Capital invested in its 





Millions lbs. 


Millions lbs. 


production in the U. States. 


1790. 


490 


2 


$3,500,000 


1800. 


520 


48 


80,000,000 


1810. 


555 


80 


134,000,000 


1820. 


630 


180 


300,000,000 


1830. 


820 


385 


6.50,000,000 


1840. 




790 


1287,000,000 


1847. 




1,026 


1731,000 000 


1848. 




1,066 




1849. 




900 





From this table, which is based upon the statements of Mr. 
Woodbury and the Commissioner of Patents, it will be seen 
that up to the commencement of the present century, the cul- 
tivation of cotton was far from an important business in the 
United States, and we have already shown that the value of 
its culture depended exclusively on the success of some 
means by which the seed could be easily separated from the 
filaments of cotton. No sooner, therefore, was it ascertained 
that Whitney's gin could accomplish this end, than the whole 
Southern States turned their attention to its culture, which 
has gone on steadily increasing until the United States at the 
present day furnish the larger proportion of cotton consumed 
in the manufactories of the entire world. Previous to 1790, 
the United States furnished no cotton to the English manufac- 
turers. During the last year the exports to England amounted 
to six hundred and ninety-six millions of pounds, of which 
six hundred and eighty-seven millions of pounds were of the 
upland growth, whose culture was immediately connected with 
Whitney's gin. 

In England the amount of capital employed in the manufac- 
ture of cotton, is estimated to exceed .£34,000,000. From 



COTTON STATISTICS. 351 



the census returns for 1840, we learn that the number of spin- 
dles in operation in the United States were 2,284,631, employ- 
ing immediately 72,119 persons, having a capital of $51,102,- 
395, and annually producing fabrics valued at $46,350,453. 

These statistics demonstrate the immense value of the cot- 
ton interest to this country, not only as furnishing a staple 
which will readily be taken in exchange for the products of the 
world, but likewise as a means of employing thousands of in- 
dividuals profitably in its manufacture. How much of the 
prosperity which has flowed in upon this country through the 
agency of its cotton trade, is due to the inventor of the cotton 
gin, can now hardly be estimated. No one will pretend to 
deny that without the exhibition of the mechanical genius of 
Arkwright, Hargreaves, Cartwright, and Watt, England would 
never have attained her present proud position as a manufac- 
turing nation, and it may not be too much to say that if the 
genius which called forth the cotton gin had been permitted 
to slumber, our Southern States would at the present day have 
been engaged in the culture of rice and tobacco, and the 
world would have still looked to Brazil and the East Indies 
for cotton, as it now does to China for tea.* 

Its inventor, however, early foresaw the slender chance of 
personal emolument from this source, and although he never 
ceased to prosecute it with untiring energy, yet with a pru- 
dence peculiar to the land of his birth, sought the means 
of increasing his gains, in an object which if not as beneficial 
at least proved more immediately lucrative. This was the 
manufacture of muskets for the government. He established 

* Dr. Junius Smith, of South Carolina, has demonstrated the applicability 
of the United States to the culture of tea, which may yet be produced in suf- 
ficient quantities to supply the home demand. 



352 WHITNEY. 



his armory on a little stream whose banks were clothed with 
the most romantic scenery, about two miles from New Ha- 
ven, in Connecticut. On this spot, now called Whitney- 
ville, doubtless recommended to him by many of the associa- 
tions of his college days, he erected his works, which have 
since served as a model for many of the more extensive 
manufacturing establishments of the country. 

He had entered into a contract with the government in Jan- 
uary, 1798, to supply it with ten thousand muskets, within 
two years. The government advanced five thousand dollars, 
to enable him to commence his works, and with the aid 
of several friends, he was enabled to obtain a loan of ten 
thousand more. The expenditures involved in the work so 
greatly exceeded his expectations, that the government found 
it necessary to make a further advance of fifteen thousand dol- 
lars, before they were in a condition to commence the manu- 
facture of the arms, and the space of time allotted to the con- 
tract was extended from two to ten years. 

He personally superintended the entire arrangements of his 
armory, and from the commonest tool to the most intricate 
piece of machinery, the whole establishment possessed a 
finish and applicability to the purposes for which it was in- 
tended, of which no manufactory of his day could boast. 
Professor Silliman, who had known him for upwards of a 
quarter of a century, says, " I was frequently led to observe 
that his ingenuity extended to every subject which demanded 
his attention ; his arrangements even of common things, were 
marked by singular good taste, and a prevailing principle of 
order." 

"The effect of this mental habit is very obvious in the dis- 



MATRIMONIAL PROJECTS. 353 



position of the buildings, and the accommodation of his man- 
ufactory of arms, — although owing to the infirmities of his 
later years, and to other causes, his arrangements were never 
finished to the full extent of his views. The machinery has 
great neatness and finish, and in its operation, evinces a de- 
gree of precision and efficiency, which gratifies every curious 
and intelligent observer. I have many times visited the es- 
tablishment with strangers and foreigners, who have gone 
away delighted with what they had seen." 

The manufacture of arms proved a much greater source of 
immediate profit, than the masterly invention of the gin, and 
although he was, in after years the recipient of considerable 
sums of money from this source, yet he used frequently to 
say that all he had ever received from the cotton gin was no 
more than a remuneration for the immense outlays he had in- 
curred, and the time he had devoted to the enterprise during 
the best years of his life*' 

Whitney was neither a selfish nor a solitary man, and from 
an early period in his life had looked forward to a suitable 
matrimonial alliance, as a source of unalloyed happiness. As 
early as 1797, in writing to his partner, (Miller,) he says: " I 
am now quite far enough advanced in life to think seriously 
of marrying. I have often looked forward to an alliance with 
an amiable and virtuous companion, as a source of happiness 
from whence I have expected one day to derive great happi- 
ness. But the accomplishment of my tour to Europe, and 
the acquisition of something which I can call my own, ap- 
pears to be absolutely necessary, before it will be admissi- 
ble for me even to ihink of family engagements." Under 
the influence of this extreme and laudable caution, he de- 
45 



354 WHITNEY. 



ferred entering into matrimonial engagements until 1817; in 
the January of which year he married the youngest daughter 
of Judge Edwards, of the District Court of Connecticut, and 
a lineal descendant of Jonathan Edwards. 

This union was crowned with all that happiness he had 
reason to anticipate from it. Tortunate in the selection 
of an amiable and intelligent partner, he was now enabled 
to indulge in the realization of those pleasing dreams with 
which he had always invested a life of domestic happi- 
ness. 

Environed by the delightful and picturesque scenery in the 
midst of which he had made his home, and lulled by the 
quiet serenity of his domestic circle, the five succeeding years 
proved to be among the happiest of his life. In comfortable, 
if not affluent circumstances, with a reputation as extended as 
the culture and use of cotton, surrounded by a large circle of 
warm and confiding friends, and happy in his domestic rela- 
tions, fortune seemed about to make him some compensation 
for the toil and perplexity of former years, but in the midst 
of so many elements of happiness, disease appeared to mar 
his pleasure, and proved to him the little reliance to be placed 
in all earthly enjoyment. 

In the fall of 1822, immediately after his return from a 
visit to Washington, he observed the first indications of 
an enlargement of the prostate gland, which, after a lin- 
gering and painful illness, terminated in his death, on the 
/ 8th of January, 1825. During his illness he entered into 
that calm and critical examination of his disease which had 
characterized all his previous operations in life. He consulted 
the opinions of medical writers upon the subject, and noted 



PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 355 



down such facts as applied to his individual case. He even 
requested his physicians to exhibit to him such anatomical il- 
lustrations as they possessed, which he examined with much 
care, and freely discussed with the medical attendants the 
chances for and against him, at the various stages of his dis- 
ease, yet strange to say, with an apparent inconsistency we 
should have hardly expected to find in him, he directed that 
no autopsy of his body should be made after his decease. 

His distinguished friend, Professor Silliman, who was a con- 
stant attendant upon him during his years of illness, observes : 

" During this period, embracing at intervals several years, 
he devised and caused to be constructed various instruments, 
for his own personal use, the minute description of which 
would not be appropriate in this place. Nothing that he ever 
invented, not even the cotton gin, discovered a more perfect 
comprehension of the difficulties to be surmounted, or evinced 
more efficient ingenuity, in the accomplishment of his object. 
Such was his resolution and perseverance, that from his sick 
chamber, he wrote both to London and Paris, for materials 
important to his plans, and he lived to receive the things he 
required, and to apply them in the way he intended. He 
was perfectly successful, so far as any mechanical means 
could afford relief or palliation ; but his terrible malady bore 
down his constitution, by repeated, and eventually by inces- 
sant inroads, upon the powers of life, which at last yielded to 
assaults which no human means could avert or sustain." 

His inventive genius, which was not confined to one great 
object, but left its impress upon every subject however trivial, 
which commanded his attention, was unequalled by any one 
of his age. It would be too much to say that his ability to 



356 WHITNEY. 



achieve any undertaking in mechanics was without limit, but 
it is very certain that he never was known to undertake a 
mechanical task in which he failed to succeed. 

An individual of the particular class of genius to which 
Whitney belonged, might readily be excused for the exhibi- 
tion of peculiarities which would have unfitted him in some 
degree for social intercourse, but he was superior to, and 
above all, such pecviliarities. United to a large and command- 
ing person, he combined manners polished by education, and 
a constant intercourse with the most refined society. He 
was generous and amiable in his disposition, and ever open 
to the appeals of humanity. He was fond of social inter- 
course, and on such occasions possessed a rare fund of con- 
versational ability. To his friends he was warmly attached, 
and retained many from early youth, among whom were some 
of the most distinguished personages in the land. He lived 
and died respected for his private worth and his unostentatious 
benevolence. Useful in life, lamented in death, no more ap- 
propriate or lasting praise can be bestowed upon him, than 
that which is inscribed on his tomb, that he was in its first 
inception and practical application, 

THE INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN. 



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